The Perils of Judicial Statesmanship

This article addresses the issue of what is fit for a Supreme Court Justice to do and whether the Court is acting within its constitutional authority. The United States is a democratic republic in which power flows from the people to elected representatives who remain answerable to the people. By contrast, the Justices sit for life and answer to no one. The Court is thus a profoundly antidemocratic institution. When and how the Court ought to exercise its anti-democratic authority is the only enduring important question in American constitutional law