Saturday, June 28, 2003

"In law, the moment of tempatation is the moment of choice, when a judge realizes in the case before him his strongly held view of justice, his political and moral imperative, is not embodied in a statute or in any provision of the Constitution. He must then choose between his version of justice and abiding by the American form of government. Yet the desire to do justice, whose nature seems to him obvious, is compelling, while the concept of constitutional process is abstract, rather arid, and the abstinence it counsels unsatisfying. To give in to temptation, this one time, solves an urgent human problem, and a faint crack appears in the American foundation. A jusge has begun to rule where a legislator should."

--Robert H. Bork, The Tempting of America, p. 1

No comments: