activist justice

activist justice

A court justice whose rulings are dictated more by personal leanings than the law. I can't believe that judge! What is he, an activist justice—handing out rulings based on his own bent?
See also: activist, justice
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • justice delayed is justice denied
  • in the interest of justice
  • Sb
  • sth
  • activist
  • activist judge
  • settle
  • pervert the course of justice
  • miscarriage of justice
  • take the law into own hands
References in periodicals archive
Bangalore, Oct 12 (ANI): Karnataka Lokayukta and civil society activist Justice Santosh Hegde has criticised the Central Government's plans to release edited tapes of panel discussions.
Hegde slams govt. decision to release tapes of Lokpal Bill talks
Even when the contradictions are glaring, as is the case with Scalia's acceptance of a textually unsupportable view of state sovereignty, Rossum tells us that Scalia's departure from principle "offers an important insight: when Scalia fails to abide by this textualist premises, he ends up acting like the activist justice he routinely criticizes" (126).
Antonin Scalia's Jurisprudence: Text and Tradition
Brennan, an activist justice and proponent of the living Constitution, described the U.S.
The Courts: End Run Around the People
Panaji, Oct 11 (ANI): Former Karnataka Lokayukta and civil society activist Justice Santosh Hegde has disapproved of Team Anna's anti-Congress stance in the Hisar bye-polls.
Hegde disapproves of Hazare's anti-Congress stance in Hisar bye-polls
Judged by this neutral standard, who were the most activist Justices on the Rehnquist Court?
Originalism and pragmatism: false friends
Therefore, to bypass the Fifth Amendment, increasingly activist justices relied on generalizations in the 14th Amendment to undercut state use of the death penalty.
Has the court moved right? The mainstream media are quick to proclaim that the Supreme Court is moving radically to the right, but a closer look reveals that the court has quite a way to go before it can be considered truly conservative
Liberal activist justices have been encouraged by the idea of a "living Constitution" to say what the law ought to be rather than what it is.
Getting original intent right
Does anyone really think that the libertarian cause would be better off with the likes of four more big government activist justices like Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as opposed to a Clarence Thomas, who is the closest thing to a libertarian to be found in authority anywhere in the federal government?
Ten reasons to fire George W. Bush