Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist #78 about the power of judicial review. In it, he said, “Of the three powers … the judiciary is next to nothing.” He argued that if judges were appointed for life and not subject to the whims of the executive or the legislative branches they would remain free from the taint of politics. He further said, “the independence of the judges may be an essential safeguard against the effects of occasional ill senses of humor in the society.”
I guess according to recent polls, the 75 percent of voters who support the Environmental Protection Agency enforcing its updated stricter limits on smog, and the 60 percent of Americans who support legal abortions, are merely ill-humors of society.
Of course, Hamilton wrote this before there were well-entrenched political parties that would end up controlling the membership of the Supreme Court and be tainted by that process; Hamilton should be rolling in his grave.
