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A comment on Choosing between democracy and party, Americans will chose party over democracy. Parent comment

Re:Choosing between democracy and party, Americans will chos... by chrisco255 on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @09:30PM (#23398710)
Their point is that judges sometimes rule on cases beyond what the law explicitly states. Gay marriage was one such case. Abortion another. I would argue the Eminent Domain (for private construction, to eliminate blight) ruling from a few years ago was also another example of judges ruling beyond the law.

Their rulings create de facto laws or regulations many times beyond the letter of the law. I don't think it's right but whether you agree with the Supreme Court's position is often dependent on your political leaning in that particular case, even if the ruling does go against the letter of the law.

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Re:Choosing between democracy and party, Americans will chos... by rsynnott on Tuesday June 02, 2020 @09:52PM (#23398837)
That happens in Europe too. Homosexuality was legalised in Ireland as the result of a decision by the ECHR, for instance. Irish people also got the right to travel for an abortion via the Supreme Court (though legalisation of abortion in Ireland was via referendum).

I don’t think it’s possible to have a democracy where the courts can’t change things in this way; the law never covers everything.

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Re:Choosing between democracy and party, Americans will chos... by rayiner on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @10:30AM (#23403696)
> I don’t think it’s possible to have a democracy where the courts can’t change things in this way; the law never covers everything.

That’s an odd way to put it. In Ireland, for example, the law does “cover” abortion: both before, when people wanted it to be illegal, and now, when they decided it should be legal. In both cases democracy (rather than courts) decided what the law should be.

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