Monday, December 13, 2010

The Myth of the Maverick Judge

A Virginia judge overturned part of the Health Care Legislation. I’m not too concerned with it, because in the grand scheme it does not mean much. There have been two other Federal Court decisions going the other way. There will be more lower court decisions to come. Ultimately, this will have to be resolved in higher courts, and I personally find it hard to believe it will be overturned, but time will tell. What interests me about the decision is the fact that the Judge in question is a Bush appointee. Many people complain about the judges and the judicial branch of government. They complain that judges are out of step with the people and too independent of politicians. Of course, this ignores the facts that in many ways they were intended to be those things. It also ignores the reality that in many ways they are not. Bush v. Gore is evidence of that. All the controversy over judicial appointments during the Bush and now Obama Presidency is evidence of that. The influence of the latest wave of Bush appointees is evidence of that. This Virginia decision might be evidence of that. These are realities that we have to consider when we talk about the judicial system, if we are really interested in taking the vision of our founders and logically fitting it into the reality in which we now live.

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