February 15, 2007

From her Legalities blog:

Judges write opinions. Judges get criticized. Judges continue writing opinions, some for the rest of their lives (i.e., life tenure). It’s called democracy. I find it quite astonishing that criticism could be considered a threat to judicial independence and has been the topic of recent speeches and conferences and, now, it seemed, congressional hearings. Certainly, there have been times in our history when the Court and its justices have come under greater attack. “Impeach Earl Warren” billboards are an obvious example, but the best instance in modern history is the ad hominen attacks on Justice Thomas. Maybe someone can help me out here, but I just can’t remember any speeches or editorials raising concerns about judicial independence when the New York Times was calling him the “Youngest, Cruelest Justice” and when countless other commentators were eviscerating him for his views, which were grounded in the law. Anyone?