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The Imperial Judiciary Meets the Impotent Congress?
Author(s) -
O'NEILL TIMOTHY J.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9930.1987.tb00399.x
Subject(s) - presidency , bureaucracy , principal (computer security) , political science , power (physics) , law , democracy , public administration , separation of powers , legislature , law and economics , sociology , politics , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , operating system
The continuing debate over an activist judiciary frequently overlooks the issue whether majoritarian institutions such as Congress can be the principal policy makers for a democracy as well as whether they ought to be. An explicit comparison of the institutional capacities of the Congress and federal courts on abortion funding suggests that Congress is capable of developing representative, responsible, and educative policies. However, a retreat by the “Imperial Judiciary” from an activist posture would not necessarily transfer power from the courts to the Congress but from the courts to unelected bureaucracies within the Congress and the Presidency.