POLS 125 Chapter Notes - Chapter NA: Judicial Activism, Civil Rights Cases, Originalism
29 Oct 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
One of the most deeply contested terms in constitutional law is judicial activism: most discussions of it revolve around its definition in reference to a political ideology or a method of constitutional interpretation. Liberal justices used judicial review to protect certain first amendment rights, certain civil rights and the rights of criminal defendants. Conservative justices used judicial review to protect other first amendment rights , other civil rights and states" rights (federalism cases) However, the conservative justices were more willing than the liberals to vote against their presumed ideological preference when casting federal invalidation votes. Areas of the most disagreement were criminal procedure and the first amendment (1) for both areas liberal justices voted to invalidate the most statutes. In regard to civil rights cases at the state level the justices cast similar numbers of invalidation votes, but they did so in different cases and to further different ideological outcomes.
