Herman Schwartz

In the following viewpoint, Herman Schwartz argues that Republican legislators during the Clinton presidency posed a danger to judicial independence. He maintains that these senators and representatives prevented judicial candidates whom they considered to be too activist from being named to fill vacancies on the bench. According to Schwartz, these conservative politicians focus wholly on the political views of liberal candidates while ignoring the many instances in which a conservative justice ignored or effectively rewrote the Constitution. He concludes that while activism can occasionally go too far, it is important to maintain judicial independence. Schwartz is a professor of law at American University in Washington, D.C., and the author of Packing the Courts: The Conservative Campaign to Rewrite the Constitution.

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1. In 1996, as...