Judicial Activism and Constitutional Interpretation Assignment

Judicial Activism and Constitutional Interpretation - Assignment ExampleThe United States of America has a checking system of judicial activism to ensure that it is minimal and public interests ar mostly protected. According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Law, judicial activism is the practice in the judiciary of protecting or expanding individual rights through decisions that depart from established precedent or ar independent of or in opposition to supposed constitutional or legislative intent.The supporters of judicial interpretations have different philosophies and the most debated among them are rigorous constructionists and those who believe in the living constitution. A strict constructionist is whiz who believes that the words and phrases used in the law and constitution are static and and so there are limited instances of interpretations. U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts has been dubbed a strict constructionist -- someone who believes the U.S. Constitution sho uld be interpreted exactly as its original authors intended (Chadwick Alex). The main outcome of this philosophy is that judgment is based on what is written in the law and not on what it should be. Some of the general supporters of this argument include the Supreme Court of the United States Justice Hugo Black and former U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and Chief Justice of Australia, Owen Dixon. In contrast to the strict constructionism, living constitutionalists are of the view that the law words and phrases are not static and should be treated as living and dynamic and they must be interpreted in such a manner that they are useful for the changing societal needs. As opined by David Dieteman on a living constitution, it is one of the most nefarious influences in the minds of Americans is the notion that the federal constitution of 1787 (the U.S. Constitution) is a living document (Dieteman David). Therefore, the words and phrases in the law and constitution enclose by Cong ress do not mean the same thing at different time points.