Opponents of judicial activism should express gratitude to the Hon. Judge Barry M. Cohen, of the 15th Circuit Court of Florida, for exploding the long-standing myth that judges are always impartial arbiters rather than proponents of specific political or religious viewpoints:

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion
/epaper/2005/12/11/a1e_cohen_1211.html

Typically, judges will avoid engaging in partisan disputes involving religion or politics, and will present opinions from a position that at least has the appearance of being indifferent to such considerations, but with Judge Barry M. Cohen we are fortunate to have a jurist who has the courage to pull back the veil and reveal the unvarnished truth.

Judge Cohen has the candor to announce to the world that in his opinion those who embrace a biblical moral view which condemns sodomy are bigots; likewise, he comments that those who articulate a belief in the existence of divine providence with respect to events of nature (hurricanes) are outrageous. His comments also seem to imply that those who believe in the enforcement of our nation's immigration laws are bigots, and that such people as enumerated above should have little or no voice in the selection of SCOTUS justices.

I value Judge Cohen's contribution to the debate on the topic of judicial activism because the primary argument favoring the involvement of judges in policy-making decisions is the fact that they are supposed to be impartial non-partisans, who are simply interested in upholding the Constitution, and do not have any political agenda to advance or axe to grind. Judge Cohen's commentary seems to suggest that this is simply not the case with all judges.

Judge Cohen's op/ed constitutes a valued contribution in support of the view that judges should not be allowed to mandate national, state, or local policies, or to make definitive judgements on constitutional meaning since such judgements may be colored by strongly-held partisan views.

Once again, Judge Cohen, thank you for your courage and candor.

http://www.popularsovereignty.org