Roberts Confirmation Hearings Replay On C-Span; The Notion Of Judicial Activism

A few (R) senators spoke words that always make me think of corporate "personhood" and the illegitimate hijacking of the 14th Amendment...

• Chuck Grassley, (R) - Iowa, went on and on about judicial restraint, judges being interpreters of law versus being makers of law, and judges not putting their personal beliefs above the Constitution.
• Jeff Sessions, (R) - Alabama, noted his belief that [I'm paraphrasing here] "activism is when a judge interjects his personal views"... and of the "arrogant nature of the concept of results-driven activism..."

In Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company [118 US 394 (1886)], a clerk's note, describing the decision, states that:

"MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE said: The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does."

Theodore: "Gee, Wally... isn't that exactly the judicial activism these two old guys on tv are talking about?"

Wallace: "Yeah, Beav. We should give them the business."

Corporate "personhood" was created out of the proverbial whole cloth. It's illegitimate.