Max Boot

Judges who make the law instead of interpreting it are harmful to democracy, Max Boot claims in the following viewpoint. According to Boot, these judges ignore the right of states to determine the best laws for their community in order to impose their own preferred viewpoints and policies. He also contends that federal judges display another type of activism by not overruling laws that give too much power to Congress and the president. Boot is the editorial features editor of the Wall Street Journal and the author of Out of Order: Arrogance, Corruption, and Incompetence on the Bench, the book from which the following viewpoint was excerpted.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What is a “juristocracy,” as defined by Boot?
2. Why does the author believe that states’ rights...