When Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement in 2018, giving President Trump a second opportunity to elevate a judge to the Supreme Court, Ian Millhiser posted this charming reflection on Twitter: “F—. You. Justice. Kennedy.” That gives you a fair idea of Mr. Millhiser’s approach to analyzing the court: Interpret every utterance by Republican-appointed justices in the worst possible light and use every circumstance of their nominations as proof of Republican treachery.
So it goes in the “The Agenda: How a Republican Supreme Court Is Reshaping America” (Columbia Global Reports, 143 pages, $15.99). Mr. Millhiser, a writer at Vox, aims to demonstrate that conservatives, while claiming to favor “judicial restraint”—a belief that justices ought to avoid usurping powers belonging to the legislature and executive—have begun to favor the opposite of restraint, “judicial activism,” when it suits their aims. “How,” he asks, “did a political party that, until very recently, was very fearful of judicial power learn to stop worrying and love judicial activism?”
