Courting Aristocracy

The preservation of “fundamental rights” by a nation’s judiciary is an old habit of tempering democracy with aristocracy, writes James Grant of the U of Cambridge. “Rights, as political claims, must compete with other political claims, must fight the political fight—a conflict that is not resolved by using rights as trumps. In what circumstances should, say, liberty prevail over security and vice versa? By handing such decisions to the judiciary, juristocracy denies citizens their democratic right to participate in the political decision-making process.”