Bench Memos

Law & the Courts

This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—January 28

1916—President Woodrow Wilson nominates Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court. In the words of historian Paul MorenoBrandeis would become the Court’s “first liberal judicial activist,” “a judge who did not merely decide cases” but instead “wanted judges to contribute to progressive reform.”  

Ed Whelan holds the Antonin Scalia Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and is a regular contributor to National Review’s Bench Memos blog.
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