Judicial Activism in a Time of No Irony

diary of a mad law professor

By Patricia J. Williams

This article appeared in the November 26, 2007 edition of The Nation.

November 8, 2007

I'm sitting in my office listening to the radio. In Pakistan, President-General Pervez Musharraf has shut down independent media and demanded that judges take an oath to uphold what he calls "provisional" military rule. He has denounced the courts for "judicial activism" in failing to support his suspension of Pakistan's Constitution. He has attempted to dissolve the Supreme Court and all provincial High Courts. Hundreds of opposition leaders and human rights activists have been arrested, including Imran Khan, the former cricket star. Martial law, says Musharraf, is a way to "preserve the democratic transition that I initiated."

A knock at the door. It's a student; his paper is about torture. The subject of torture is a first for me, but apparently I'm among the last on the bandwagon. The young man tells me that every course he's taking deals with torture in one way or another. Should there be judicial warrants for torture? What practices constitute it? Is organ failure an appropriate outer limit? Should state-sponsored torturers be granted immunity from prosecution? How do we reconcile international treaties barring torture? My student and I narrow his topic amid an embarrassment of choices. He decides to analyze a series of opinions by Berkeley law professor and former Justice Department official John Yoo, and I send him on his way.

Until recently, torture was about the only thing every nation on earth condemned. Until recently, there were no such equivocations about it. And until recently, "democracy" meant something other than the power of unchecked violence wielded by either a strongman or a unitary executive.

Subscriber Login

4 ISSUES FREE

Subscribe Now!

The only way to read this article and the full contents of each week's issue of The Nation online is by subscribing to the magazine. Subscribe now and read this article -- and every article published since for the past five years -- right now.

There's no obligation -- try The Nation for four weeks free.

.

About Patricia J. Williams

Patricia J. Williams, a professor of law at Columbia University and a member of the State Bar of California, writes The Nation column "Diary of a Mad Law Professor." Her books include The Rooster's Egg (1995), Seeing a Color-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race (1997) and, most recently, Open House: On Family Food, Friends, Piano Lessons and The Search for a Room of My Own (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2004.) more...
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Blogs

» The Beat

House Passes Health Reform, But Without Reproductive Rights | Pelosi secures necessary votes, but only after allowing anti-choice Dems to bar access to abortion in new programs.
John Nichols
156 Comments

» Editor's Cut

Around The Nation | Obama, one year on. Plus: Jeremy Scahill takes your questions, and a new video series from The Nation.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
25 Comments

» The Notion

Injustice in Illinois | Prosecutors in Illinois should be more concerned with an innocent man behind bars than journalism students' grades.
Ari Berman
28 Comments

» The Dreyfuss Report

Obama Fails in Middle East | Clinton delivers the ultimate diss to Abbas.
Robert Dreyfuss
154 Comments

» Act Now!

Equality Across America | This week, young LBGT activists are staging a National Week of Initiative.
Peter Rothberg
16 Comments

» Altercation

Slacker Thursday | Dying laptops, recapping the election, the Dow, and the Yankees with the World Series.
Eric Alterman