A long and growing list of judicial rulings in recent years has prompted many to wonder how the third branch of government – designed to interpret laws – has instead gotten into the habit of making them.

To diagnose the problem, we must look more closely at the causes, not just the symptoms. One of those is political.

“Legal scholars educating the next generation of attorneys and judges are mostly Democrats, according to a wide swath of research, a troubling trend that some say hinders academic freedom [and] unduly influences judicial rulings and scholarly work,” The College Fix recently reported. “Republicans – as well as right-leaning women and Christians of both genders – are vastly underrepresented among law school faculties, a trend that spans much of the last two decades.”

One study reviewed by The College Fix found that Democrats make up nearly 82 percent of law professors. What’s more, Republican women remain “almost missing from law teaching.”

Indeed, a recent survey described as the “most extensive analysis of the political ideology of American lawyers ever conducted” found law professors are the most liberal group of the 61 practice areas measured. Entertainment and civil rights attorneys, for example, are liberal, but academics are even more liberal. (Oil and gas and merger and acquisitions attorneys are conservative.)

Additional studies have found “many law professors’ quotes to journalists propagate a leftist interpretation of the law. What’s more, ‘law professors, unlike other types of academics, directly influence the law by writing articles that judges read and occasionally cite in judicial opinions,’” The Fix reports.

The legal world is in an echo chamber dominated by Democrats and liberal viewpoints. It’s no wonder many judges hand down activist rulings. Not even the Supreme Court is immune.