U.S. Supreme Court,
Judges and Judiciary
Mar. 16, 2016
Judging requires value choices
Let's all stop pretending that there is such a thing as value-free judging and let's get rid of silly slogans like, "justices apply the law, they don't make the law."
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
UC Berkeley School of Law
Erwin's most recent book is "Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism." He is also the author of "Closing the Courthouse," (Yale University Press 2017).
It is nonsense to think that U.S. Supreme Court justices can decide constitutional cases without their making value choices. Since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13, Republicans increasingly have been touting the idea that Supreme Court justices should just apply the law and decide cases without ideology playing any role. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued a statement rejecting the idea that a justices' views or life experiences should...
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