Many of the really bad things about don't ask, don't tell' come not from the congressional statute but from his implementation of it. A new president can undo his mistakes. It is either imposing a financial penalty that is too large given the actual economic harm done, or it is imposing a penalty that is too low. If executives recognized that they might be exposed to personal liability in situations where there was clear securities fraud, it would focus their minds wonderfully. Unpopular judicial decisions meet with cries for resignation or impeachment.
Legislative decisions limit judicial discretion.
In many jurisdictions, judges must campaign for office, raising the specter of interest group influence on their selection. This is a situation made for empirical research. If we identify the causes of the attacks on judicial independence, we can develop a better understanding of how to remedy the problem. If we identify the policies that best protect judicial independence, using sophisticated empirical analytic techniques, we can make the case for adopting these policies to legislators and the public. Many people may not have liked the outcome, they may have disagreed with the jury, but they learned a lot about criminal procedure.