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May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation

David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church

Emily Alpert: Recession dragged down birth rates for less-educated women
Morgan Housel: The deep downside of home ownership

Peter Teffer: Will Dutch police soon be stalking cybercriminals on your computer?

Heidi McIndoo, M.S., R.D.: Meatless 'meat' can have its own set of problems

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Celebrate! This must-try appetizer is delicate yet has depth of flavor: Corn-Leek Cakes with Caviar, Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

May 10, 2013

Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be

Caroline B. Glick: The dirty little secret about Israel's Arabs

Mona Charen: Hawking's Moral Calculus: The man and the movement he embraces
Morgan Housel: The biggest retirement myth ever told

Sandi Doughton: Eyes may provide new insight into brain problems

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : The Great Gatsby's Jewish Ties; Jews in the "Time 100 list" List; People's Most Beautiful Women

The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer: A sweet-hot meal: Pear salsa spices up salmon

May 8, 2013

Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate

Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
Amanda Paulson: Study reveals sad truths about community colleges

Harvard Health Letters: Evidence weak that zinc, echinacea are beneficial

The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility

May 6, 2013

Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell: Think Israel's objective in Syria is to weaken Assad or embolden the rebels? Think again

Brian Bennett: Israeli airstrikes may show weakness in Syrian defense

Michael Ollove: Millions of ex-felons, parolees and those on probation are about to be entitled to tax-payer paid health coverage
Karen Kaplan: Most men can skip PSA test for prostate cancer, urologists say

Kimberly Lankford: How to track down a lost life insurance policy

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan M. Selasky: EGGPLANT WRAPS are an easy, sumptuous and scrumptious meal

May 3, 2013

Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Human Courage and the Unavoidable, Disturbing Text

Steven Emerson: Attorney General Fights CAIR in Court, Lauds it in Public

Mediterranean diet helps beat dementia: study
Harvard Health Letters: When to be screened for a hearing problem

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Iron Man's Jewish Connections; Marc Maron's New TV Show; Martin Landau Grows Up with Israel; Shalom, Allan Arbus

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: A sweet surprise for Mother's Day dessert

May 1, 2013

Jonathan Rosenblum: An Improbable Journey to Orthodoxy

Jonathan Tobin: Blame Obama, Not Israel for Syria Push

Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Halena M. Gazelka, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: What you need to know about implanted pain relief devices

Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine

Jessica Shugart: When it comes to math, MRIs may be better than IQs

The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali: The celebrated chef on how high-maintenance ASPARAGUS RISOTTO need not be

April 29, 2013

Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust

Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?

Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Morgan Housel: He's rich, smart and old: Listen to him

Thomas Salinas, D.D.S.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: The safety of amalgam fillings

Harvard Health Letters: Tomatoes and stroke protection

Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA

The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington: Swing into spring with lemon cream pie

April 26, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: The world is a mirror

Caroline B. Glick: Time to confront Obama

Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Kimberly Lankford: New strategies ease pain of paying for long-term care insurance

Howard LeWine, M.D.: Ask the Harvard Experts: Too much ibuprofen?

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Major Leaguers, 2013; New Movies and Comedy Show; Shalom, 'Lumpy' (Leave it to Beaver)

The Kosher Gourmet by Emily Ho : A bright and cheerful salad to herald the warmer months ahead

April 24, 2013

Steven Emerson: Boston Bomber Exposes Islamist Secret

Morgan Housel Admit it: No one has any idea what's going on
Harvard Health Letters: Can you get headaches from headache medication?

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to easily get more Omega-3s in your diet

Melissa Healy: Pot in a pill: All the pain relief without the smoke

The Kosher Gourmet by Susan Russo: Chipotle Chili Butternut Squash Soup is bold, zesty, hot

April 22, 2013

Ken Dilanian: Counterterrorism's future is unclear

US man departing country arrested on terror charges
Barbara Williams: An unorthodox but growing treatment in a 9-year-old's battle against cancer

P.J. Skerrett, M.D.: How to recognize a good whole grain product

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Teen actor Jonah Bobo in New Flick: Hunky James Wolk on Mad Men; Erich Segal's Daughter Writes Prize-Winning Jewish Novel


Jewish World Review July 12, 2012/ 22 Tamuz, 5772

The art of self-restraint

By Paul Greenberg




http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Granted, it was not the most popular decision ever rendered by a chief justice of the United States. Its immediate result was particularly unpopular with those who over the years had shared his own political loyalties and ideological tendencies.

The chief justice drafted his opinion carefully, methodically, logically, upholding one argument after another against the very conclusion he would finally reach. When he did reach it, many were surprised, quite a few were shocked. He was accused of betraying not just his party's interests but the very logic he'd followed right up to his last change of course.

I'm talking, of course, about John Marshall's decision in Marbury v. Madison, the decision that enshrined the principle of judicial review in American constitutional law. That principle isn't explicitly mentioned in the Constitution even though it could be readily inferred; Marbury v. Madison spelled it out definitively.

After reciting every argument why William Marbury, his fellow Federalist, should receive his commission as a justice of the peace in the District of Columbia, the chief justice refused to order the new secretary of state to deliver it. Even though John Marshall himself had sought, unsuccessfully, to have it delivered when he was acting as John Adams' secretary of state in the waning hours of the Adams administration.

Indeed, like Mr. Marbury, the chief justice had been one of the many "midnight appointments" that the country's last Federalist president had made in an attempt to keep the judiciary from being shaped by the incoming administration of Thomas Jefferson.

But the chief justice withstood the partisan temptation to order Mr. Marbury's commission delivered. He had a larger object in mind. He rejected his fellow Federalist's plea on the ground that it had been brought to the wrong court. He reasoned that, according to the Constitution, the Supreme Court heard only appeals in cases like Mr. Marbury's -- that it was not a court of original jurisdiction. And the Judiciary Act that had given his court such jurisdiction was in conflict with the Constitution and therefore void. It was the first time an Act of Congress had been declared unconstitutional. It would not be the last.

The chief justice had sacrificed Mr. Marbury's commission but secured the authority of his court and the American judiciary to overrule legislative acts. His historic decision made the judiciary the final arbiter of American law -- an immense power indeed.

His old rival Thomas Jefferson knew just what John Marshall was up to, and complained bitterly. But it was too late. Mr. Jefferson had been outfoxed by his fellow Virginian. And the principle of judicial review was firmly established in American law and history.

Now another chief justice of the Supreme Court has handed down an unexpected ruling, sorely disappointing the partisans who had once cheered his appointment. His was the decisive vote on the court for this administration's new health-care plan, aka Obamacare.

Who'd a-thought it?

Only those who anticipated that, more than partisan advantage, this chief justice would value a principle -- that of judicial restraint. Or as he called it during his confirmation hearings, "judicial modesty." Didn't conservatives used to think such modesty a good thing in a judge, as opposed to that catch-all accusation, judicial activism?

Throughout his judicial career, John Roberts has emphasized the dangers of the courts' overreaching. Instead he has recognized the value of judges' deferring to the other branches of government, those that represent the popular will, and whose leaders are regularly held accountable to it at the polls. Unlike federal judges with their lifetime appointments.

Isn't judicial restraint still to be admired? Even if the law being deferred to is one that is deeply troubling. As the chief justice said of the federal judiciary in his majority opinion, "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."

This chief justice's opinion in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius may lack the crystalline logic of John Marshall's historic decision in Marbury, but not every chief justice can be a John Marshall. He was unique. Such a man, and jurist, may come along only once in a republic's history, and then only in its formative phase.

The essence of this latest instance of judicial restraint is that We the People have a right to our own mistakes. And the right to correct them. The chief justice now has recognized and respected a political decision made, appropriately enough, by our politicians. If it was the wrong decision, if it ought to be rethought or even revoked, changed in various particulars or reversed altogether, that is what elections are for.

The genius of American politics is its capacity for orderly change, its instinct for consensus. A new one waits to be shaped Tuesday, November 6.

Paul Greenberg Archives

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JWR contributor Paul Greenberg, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. Send your comments by clicking here.

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