I prefer this analysis -- the judiciary is made up of people who belong to the intelligentsia elite, which, in this country, like so many others, is liberal.
I'm sorry, but this is incredibly off the mark, overbroad and simplistic.
I know many, many judges, especially ones in the federal judiciary, who are conservative and intellectual. I know liberal federal judges who are intellectual. I know middle of the roaders who are intellectuals.
I find the liberal judges to be mainly found in the state courts. They are, at least in Louisiana, political hacks. To say that these types are intellectuals or part of the "intelligentsia" is absurd. They are liberal not because of principle but because they know which side of their toast holds the butter.
I suspect that this is the case in many other states.
The most "intellectual" courts are the federal appellate courts. To say that they are "liberal" is ridiculous because, as you well know, randomly selected panels of three issue most decisions. It is the composition of these panels that matters. Over time, the character, if you will, of a court will develop, and it will be an amalgam of all of the members, who are both conservative, moderates and liberals depending, usually but not always, on the political agenda of the President who nominated the particular judge. |
