When people think of non-liberal approaches to the exercise of judicial review, they usually think of conservatism’s claims to endorse judicial restraint, in opposition to what conservatives think of as liberal judicial activism. There are some people on the right, however, who openly endorse judicial activism in defense of the ends they approve of. One form of this today is a kind of libertarian constitutionalism that approves judicial activism in defense of individual rights.
For those who are interested in this debate, there is a book by Damon Root, an editor at Reason magazine, called Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court.
I have a review of the book at National Review, and my review is critical of this libertarian constitutionalism, claiming that the constitution it defends is not really the same as the constitution the founders gave us.
Root offers a reply here.
And then I have a rejoinder here, at National Review Online’s Bench Memos.