E. J. Dionne: This is not just a fight about abortion

[question everything]

E.J. DIONNE JR. THE WASHINGTON POST

This is not just a fight about abortion

November 23, 2004

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer performed an enormous service to our country last week. He clarified what is at stake in the coming fights over judicial nominations. He made clear why it is important to raise our national argument over court appointments above the level of slogans and campaign speeches.

(snip)

The new conservative judicial activism is a greater threat to our democracy than the prospect of some future court striking down the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion. If Roe is lost (and I doubt it will be), states will still be free to pass liberal abortion laws. But if extreme conservative judges limit the authority of Congress and state legislatures to pass environmental, civil rights, labor and consumer laws, our democracy will be less robust, less effective and less just.

(snip)

Breyer's master concept is "active liberty." He argues that the point of our Constitution is democracy – to guarantee "the principle of participatory self-government" that gives the people "room to decide and leeway to make mistakes."

He suggests that justices who focus primarily on the Constitution's text and "the Framers' original expectations narrowly conceived" miss the Founders' basic intention. Their purpose, Breyer says, was "to create a framework for democratic government – a government that, while protecting basic individual liberties, permits citizens to govern themselves, and to govern themselves effectively."

(snip)

The power of Breyer's idea of "active liberty" is that it links freedom to democracy. The point of our system of self-government is not simply to protect us from the wrongs government can commit but to give all of us the opportunity to shape what government does.

More..

Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041123/news_lz1e23dionne.html

Dionne can be reached via e-mail at [e-mail].

[Beetwasher]

1. "Our democracy will be less robust..."

Democracy? What democracy?

Sorry to break the news to you E.J., there ain't no more of that there democracy here anymore...