Legislative Branch only
Established by Article I of the Constitution, the Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together form the United States Congress. The Constitution grants Congress the sole authority to enact legislation and declare war, the right to confirm or reject many Presidential appointments, and substantial investigative powers.
(White house.gov)
John Roberts Activist Card
In its sweeping disregard of history, precedent and constitutional text, the chief justice’s 5-to-4 opinion in the voting rights case was startling for its naked activism
(The Opinionator Jun 29, 2013)
Antonin Scalia activist judge
The idea that liberal judges are advocates and partisans while judges like Justice Scalia are not is being touted everywhere these days, and it is pure myth. Justice Scalia has been more than willing to ignore the Constitution's plain language, and he has a knack for coming out on the conservative side in cases with an ideological bent.
(New York Times April 19, 2005)
Anthony Kennedy Activist judge
Justice Kennedy is the most activist judge on the court — willing to strike down federal and state laws when they violate individual liberty and dignity."
(NPR.org June 28, 2013)
Clarence Thomas Activist Judge
We found that justices vary widely in their inclination to strike down Congressional laws. Justice Clarence Thomas, appointed by President George H. W. Bush, was the most inclined, voting to invalidate 65.63 percent of those laws; Justice Stephen Breyer, appointed by President Bill Clinton, was the least, voting to invalidate 28.13 percent. The tally for all the justices appears below.
Thomas 65.63 %
Kennedy 64.06 %
Scalia 56.25 %
Rehnquist 46.88 %
O’Connor 46.77 %
Souter 42.19 %
Stevens 39.34 %
Ginsburg 39.06 %
Breyer 28.13 %
(New York Times Published: July 6, 2005)
Samuel Alito Activist Judge
Alito's conservative stripes are equally evident in criminal law. Lawrence Lustberg, a New Jersey criminal defense lawyer who has known Alito since 1981 and tried cases before him on the Third Circuit, describes him as "an activist conservatist judge"
(USnews.com Posted 7/19/05)
Contention 1: History shows Preclearance is needed
Without a preclearance, the United States returns to a failed method of prosecuting discriminatory racial laws. In the previous Civil Rights Acts, Congress granted the Attorney General the power to prosecute discriminatory racial laws. He proved unable. Voting suits are very hard to prepare for and are also ineffective. The Supreme Court case Katzenbach, details how voting suits sometimes require as many as 6,000 hours preparing for one trial. Even if there is a victory, states can switch to a different discriminatory law and force the Attorney General to repeat the process once again. Thus, Congress instituted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to create a preclearance. A
