Volume 8: Issue 3
The Supreme Court and Judicial Restraint: Philip Morris USA v. W
Judicial pragmatists have implicitly ceded the moral high ground to more restrained approaches to constitutional interpretation. People for the American Way (PFAW), for example, did not oppose Judge Alito for rejecting judicial activism. They rather opposed him for allegedly embracing judicial activism: “Judge Alito… has a record of ideological activism against privacy rights, civil rights, workers’ rights, and more…. far-right judicial activists like Samuel Alito… would threaten hundreds of Supreme Court decisions….” Judicial restraint has evidently prevailed, at least in theory.