In justifying this doctrine, the justices have raised the specter of out-of-control bureaucrats intruding on the liberty of citizens, undermining legal stability, serving only special interests and invading the domain of the states. In other words, the justices are paternalistically claiming to protect Congress from itself. ***In all of these areas and in plenty more, the justices have seized for themselves an active role in governance. When Mr. Roberts recently refused to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, nothing stopped Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan or Ketanji Brown Jackson from volunteering to testify, but they did not. Nothing is stopping them from publicly calling for a binding ethics code or from questioning not just the correctness but also the legitimacy of their institution’s assertiveness, but they have not.

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Persons: Beau Baumann, Neil Gorsuch, Roberts, —, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson Organizations: Republican, Democratic, Committee