[Discussion] Court Nominees Question Thread

[Roavin]

What are your views on judical activism?

I guess the question here is in which sense? 

Judicial activism in the strict sense means ruling according to personal and political wishes. In a wider sense, it can also refer to decisions that can't be read through plain reading of the law and may require some subjective judgement to come to a sensible result. I prefer the stricter definition.

If you mean the strict definition: I don't think it belongs in a court. Period.

If you mean the wider definition: I like the three rules of statutory interpretation that RL English courts use: First, use the plain meaning rule (rule as written unless the result is cruel or absurd), then the mischief rule (rule according to intent unless the result is cruel or absurd), and finally the golden rule (adapt what is written just enough to make the result not cruel or absurd). That may involve some subjectivity, but we will be three judges with pretty different backgrounds, so the likelihood that the result will end up being motivated by personal or political ambition is, I think, very unlikely.