When judicial activism gives them a hard time, they can hire high-powered law firms and throw somebody else's money at the problem. They're also afraid to rock the boat. God only knows where it would end. So we are all taught, in school and in the mass media, that our courts are stalwart and reliable guardians of our cherished freedom. They tell us to respect, as our sacred heritage, laws made up by judges, laws that often stand in sharp conflict with the Constitution.
Judicial independence is a sacred cow.
Our institutional leaders protect it even though it repeatedly fouls the community well. Nobody blows the whistle in terms that the public could understand. However, legal scholars and social scientists freely discuss the truth among themselves. It's clear that all those rubes out in the hinterlands can outvote us. However, elite legal scholars go on to say, 'we need a better story.