The Cosmic Mystery of Judicial Restraint: J. Harvie Wilkinson III's Cosmic Constitutional Theory: Why Americans are Losing Their Inalienable Right to Self-Governance

Abstract

A distinguished federal appellate judge, J. Harvie Wilkinson III, has an exasperated message for constitutional theorists: A plague on all your houses! This short review demonstrates that Judge Wilkinson’s proposed alternative to all constitutional theories, which he calls “judicial restraint,” is actually a confused melange of judicial activism and judicial abdication. The review concludes by suggesting a different form of judicial restraint, and one that is consistent with the constitutional theory of originalism.