Here’s an idea, suggested to me by a government lawyer, for how Congress can help reign in activist judges: The next time the judicial appropriations bill come around, don’t include any money for law clerks. The activist approach to judging is much more reliant on and influenced by twentysomething students fresh out of the academy than the interpretivist approach, for which the judge’s main job is simply to read the Constitution or statute and see if something is in there or not.