George Will Comes Clean, Demands "Judicial Activism"

Earlier this year, George Will wrote a column blasting the bailout as an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to the president. Historically, the Supreme Court has been extremely reluctant to invalidate legislation as violating the "nondelegation doctrine." Furthermore, the Constitution clearly gives Congress power over the economy and the president the power to execute laws passed by Congress. Moreover, the bailout has received support during two sessions of Congress, from two presidents, and from two Secretaries of the Treasury. Consequently, after Will published his article, I described it as a demand for "judicial activism" from a conservative -- which seems to violate a sacred conservative principle. Nevertheless, Will has now come clean and made explicit his demand for an activist "conservative" Supreme Court.

See: More Judicial Activism Please.

Will is not the first conservative to demand judicial activism recently. Many conservatives, for example, have criticized certain rulings by Sonia Sotomayor, which closely follow the law, but reach outcomes that conservatives politically oppose.