Clarification: my posting of linked article is not intended for defense of the Supreme Court candidate. Kagan can hardly be regarded an activist; at first threat of federal funding cut to Harvard over the issue in question (barring of military recruiters from campus) she folded. What Joel finds John Yoo arguing here is that the duty of an American citizen -- at least in wartime -- is to submit without challenge to the decisions of government, even if those decisions are (by Yoo's own lights) wrong. In this universe, then, there is no right "to petition for redress of grievances," no check-and-balance provided by the judicial branch. The time-honored tradition of American dissent -- and of nonviolent resistance to laws deemed by citizens to be morally wrong -- is thus "activist," and thus potentially disqualifying when it comes to judicial nominations.
message to John Yoo: "activist" is not a dirty word
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