I've always believed that the whole crusade over "activist judges" is essentially a fight about judges either side doesn't like. Conservatives want conservative activists on the Court to counteract the perceived (and in a number of cases very real) liberal activism of previous years. Liberals want to stop them, and a lot of liberals want their own activists on the Court to stop the conservatives, and/or force their own liberal agendas. Of course I'm talking about the ideologues here. It's safe to say that the ideologues are looking for their own personal agendas, driven by the political whims of their ideological votaries. So I wonder, could a Constitutional amendment doing away with life tenure for judges solve this problem? I haven't really thought this out completely, but it seems that if activists are able to make laws, and basically affect law for subsequent generations, wouldn't limiting the term help to minimize any damage done?
OTOH, bad judges can wreck the Constitution in a short span of time, and leaving judgeships at the mercy of the political machinery would only make things worse. Perhaps we'll all just have to commit ourselves, and compel our leaders to commit themselves to putting forth good judges, free of ANY bias at all.
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