A GOP Reversal On "Judicial Activism"?

At his Atlantic Correspondents blog, Andrew Cohen sees the Republican Party reversing course from its tried and true denunciations of "judicial activism," following a headline in The Hill that Republicans now "see the courts as the last line of defense vs. Democrats' agenda":

I am old enough, at the tender age of 43, to remember 1980s headlines like: "Democrats see the courts as the last line of defense vs. GOP agenda." Back then, liberals hoped the federal courts would stem the conservative tide that was sweeping through politics in the Age of Reagan. But now, in the burgeoning Age of Obama, it's conservatives and Republicans who believe an active and forceful judiciary is necessary to thwart the "tyranny" of the current majority.

So much for their old saw about "judicial activism" being such a bad thing.

And just as Democrats did in the '80s, left over from their pre-Reagan dominance, Republicans now have a majority among federal judges after the Bush years: most active federal judges are Republican appointees. Read Cohen's full post here.