Why don't people realize that the only job of a Supreme Court justice is to decide if a law is or is not Constitutional?
It doesn't matter if masks do or don't stop or slow the spread of a virus. It only matters if laws mandating them are Constitutional.
It doesn't matter if climate change is real (of course it is). It only matters if laws connected to it are Constitutional.
It doesn't matter if a fetus is a human (of course it is). It only matters if state-mandated murder of someone residing in your body is Constitutional
?2020-10-26T17:45:14Z
The reason so many assume judges are activists rather than interpreters is because we don't teach the function of such things in schools. Even as far back as FDR's attempts to stack the court along idealogical lines the concept of the judge as impartial was fading. If you don't believe that a lot of people are comfortable with bias in juris prudence just look at half the nation mourning the loss of RBG and talking about "what great things she did for women". Judges aren't supposed to do great things for one group or another, they're just supposed to interpret what's already on the page.
Virtually all laws are interpreted to be applicable or not applicable under certain conditions (such as abortion). The interpretation is not "black and white" and it is not included in the Constitution. When the Constitution was written abortions may have been uncommon but they did occur and they were not against the law
No, that is not the “only” job. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. The Supreme Court sometimes has to make rulings that are clearly against the Constitution, because otherwise the country would be destroyed. See, for example, rulings about the civil war, and the 9/11 response.
Besides that, the Court makes rulings on many subjects where Constitutional issues are not involved.