#but activist judges don't care about precedent or established rule of law

[woolandcoffee]

Another WOTUS decision from an activist judge, and I just can't stress enough how much the U.S. is captured by an activist, right-wing judiciary. If the courts were ever neutral arbiters who's only existence was to settle disputes and occasionally interpret the law, that time is long past. Our government is, in theory, set up on a system of checks and balances. Except that there is no realistic check upon the court system. At least, there is no realistic check upon the court system if the federal government refuses to act (either by ignoring clearly biased rulings, removing activist judges from the bench, or packing the courts with more moderate jurists).

Unless the judiciary is meaningfully reigned in, judges will continue to take more and more power. If judges continue to overrule federal agencies - who are empowered to act by Congress and the President, and employ thousands of experts to make informed decisions - for no reason other than that particular judge disagrees personally with the agency's decision, then we're effectively letting judges run the government. It doesn't matter who the President is, or what Congress does, it matters what some Harvard grad who wears a polyester robe to work and hasn't every worked an honest day in their life is. And that's a fucking problem.