Steven Friedman’s ability to focus on vital trends is laudable. However, his fear that the judiciary might take over the job of democratic politics (Judges’ overreach is a threat to democracy, May 17) is a bit rich in a time when a corrupt administration and captive president have been overreaching themselves in more ways than one. The tendency to ignore the injunctions of our courts — witness the flouting of constitutional rulings on actions of the president and inaction of Parliament — is surely what is fatally weakening our democracy. The courts have been the one element of government that has maintained rationality against the unravelling. The reason judiciaries are required to be independent is to ensure there is a nonpolitical authority freely competent to rule on illicit and unconstitutional acts. If in a constitutional democracy the law is not supposed to be concerned with rationality of government decisions, why bother with law and order? I am impressed with the fact that, ...
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