Nowhere is the idiocy of conservative ideology more apparent than in matters of the law. First let us clear the air. Conservatives accuse liberals of using the courts to make law and that this is wrong because the Constitution should be strictly interpreted. Yet it is Conservatives themselves that legislate from the bench and this is quite obvious from Citizens United a case that overturned a hundred years of law.
Now ancient Romans and the French among others codified all their laws into what was called a system of civil law and that meant that judges could not interpret the law they just enforced the codes as they were written.
But we in the United States live under the English tradition of the common law and that means that part of our laws are codified and part are the interpretation of judges. Therefore the conservative holding that judges should not legislate the law is utterly ridiculous for common law allows for laws to be created by judges so long as they are built on precedent or earlier cases if you will.
What is truly astounding is that the conservatives on the United States Supreme Court seem unaware of this common law tradition a legal issue that any first year law student would know as if it were as much as common knowledge to everyone much as we all know that the sun must rise and the sun must set.
This leads many to wonder if these conservative justices are capable of passing a rigorous bar exam like that of New York or California that would be a measure of their legal acumen. Perhaps we all know this but are too embarrassed for these justices to speak of it in public and unfortunately that allows conservatives to undermine the very foundation of our legal tradition unimpeded.