A majority of the survey respondents agreed with statements that "judicial activism" has reached the crisis stage, and that judges who ignore voters’ values should be impeached. Nearly half agreed with a congressman who said judges are "arrogant, out-of-control and unaccountable."
....
Several legal scholars responding to the survey results were startled by the numbers.
Georgetown’s Tushnet says he didn’t realize the level of dissatisfaction was so high. "What I had thought was the case was that there was a significantly higher residue of general respect for the courts," he says. "And these numbers suggest that that’s not true."
Geyh of Indiana University says the survey suggests "a trajectory" upward in the number of people unhappy with the American judiciary—apparently simply because these critics disagree with the law that judges have a duty to apply.
The idea that judges should "somehow follow the voters’ views really reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what judges are supposed to do," he continues. "They should only be criticized when they ignore the law and start infusing their own values into the law regardless of the law."
Hmmm. Maybe voters believe that the judges are not following the law, but rather are making the law, ruling a free and self-governing people from the Bench, based upon the judges' own beliefs and moral preferences.
I am not shocked by this survey. I am pleased and encouraged. Bob Bork may have lost the "great debate" in the law schools, but it looks like he is winning with the People.
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