Here is an interesting quote from Judge Breyer where he seconds my complaint that most people seem to misunderstand the role of the court. This is of particular interest as he is probably one of the most liberal justices on the court. Not to suggest that conservatives are any less likely to make this mistake, the anti-abortion lobby seems to believe their moral cause establishes constitutional justification, but when one looks at actual constitutional scholars and justices the liberals seem to have been more receptive to the idea of the justice inserting policy judgements.

And also, I think there’s a misconception. I think that many people believe that we’re deciding what’s good or bad for Americans. That’s not the job of the court in constitutional cases. The job is really to look at the Constitution which sets boundaries, vast space in between those constitutional boundaries. That space is for people to decide for themselves what they want. And we’re just policing the far boundaries of that space.

From pbs newshour

UPDATE: I don’t take the controversial point to be that the supreme court should not decide what is good and bad rather that much of the country seems to misunderstand this. More on this in another post.