Re: “Government shouldn’t so easily erase individual rights” (George Will column, 9-8).
Will ignores a key fact: His claim that the Supreme Court “correctly decided Lochner” in 1905 has been rejected overwhelmingly by conservatives — including by Will himself.
Indeed, the author of the book Will relies on reacted by stressing that “conservative jurists have been, if anything, even more anti–Lochner than their liberal counterparts.” Libertarian professor Don Bordeaux pointed out that conservatives – including Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia – routinely join “Progressives” in bashing Lochner. No less a conservative icon than Robert Bork derides Lochner as being “the symbol, indeed the quintessence, of judicial usurpation of power.”
Finally, as National Review commentator Matthew J. Franck explains: “This is the same George Will who in 1996 described Lochner as standing for the proposition that ‘the court can overturn laws it considers unwise.’”
(Sugameli is staff attorney for the Judging the Environment project and Defenders of Wildlife.)
Lochner is good within the confines of the original scope of the trial: bakers. When stretched too far to cover unintended subjects, it falls flat.
as National Review commentator Matthew J. Franck explains: “This is the same George Will who in 1996 described Lochner as standing for the proposition that ‘the court can overturn laws it considers unwise.’”
Will is never one to let personal consistency get in the way of a chance to ding liberals..
LOL bB I’ll have to save that one for (no doubt) future use…