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View Full Version : Justice Kennedy's Quote On Judicial Review



Kathianne
10-17-2009, 12:05 AM
Pretty good I must say, though Althouse didn't like it:

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2009/10/if-you-can-invent-it-judicial-review.html


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2009

"If you can invent it" — judicial review — "you can do whatever you want with it."
An observation, made by Justice Anthony Kennedy, about why it made a difference whether judicial review is implicit in the Constitution or an invention of judges.

He was giving the keynote address yesterday afternoon for the symposium "Judicial Review: Historical Debate, Modern Perspectives, and Comparative Approaches" at George Washington University Law School. (I'm on a 9 a.m. panel today.)

I was particularly interested in that comment, because I don't agree with it. I think a judge who believes that judicial review was invented might feel more inclined toward restraint, and a judge who thinks judicial review was inherent in the original Constitution might feel more inspired toward activism. But of course it could be the other way around too....