>Toobin's comments strike me as historically short-sighted. Did liberals
>invent judicial activism? What about all the conservative decisions of the
>19th and early 20th century, upholding segregation and striking down social
>reforms? The period from the 1950s to the early 1970s was only a small
>liberal island in a sea of judicial conservatism, I would argue.
Your earlier examples blocked political reform. Toobin - making a point I've made myself, which is why I felt so moved to quote him - is talking about how liberals used the courts to accomplish political reform without mobilizing activists, voters, and legislators. Reactionaries have always used courts to block mobilizations - but the innovation was to use litigation as a substitute for mobilization. It seems the reproductive rights movement in the U.S. has almost no other strategy besides this right now.
Doug