Craig Green, Associate Professor of Law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, spoke to faculty members on the Harrisburg campus about his historical analysis of judicial activism on Wednesday, November 12th.
Opening with the origins of the term judicial activism, Professor Green noted that the term came from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s 1947 Fortune magazine article, "The Supreme Court: 1947". “Judicial activism is best reconceived as meaning a departure from accepted notions of judicial role,” suggested Professor Green, adding, “Most people feel like judicial activism is a meaningless term; it’s a useless term, a politically corrupted term, it’s the type of term that educated people should not use. My suggestion is in response to that point; it has been around for sixty years. It hasn’t died yet. It has political power, and it is not helpful, I suggest, to ignore a category of discourse about judges just because they are using the wrong word.”