[shuntress]

It is a judge's responsibility to literally judge whether a given application of the law is appropriate.

This encompasses every possible input including "what they believe lawmakers meant to say".

Edit: To get out in front of the obvious "Well what about when a judge just decides to do whatever they want??" response, I will say: That is why tradition, precedent, checks & balances, voting rights, and institutional trust all matter.

[mek6800d2]

I'm having a little trouble interpreting (pun a happy happenstance!) your comment. Judging whether an application of a law is "appropriate" basically gives judges free rein to do whatever they want, although I can't think of a better description of what judges should do. (I suppose your use of "literally" is problematic in that, as used, it simply refers to your definition of a judge's responsibillity but is easily conflated with other posters' use of "literal" in the sense of the judge not doing any "interpretation" of the law.)

Gorsuch infamously ruled that the application of contract law (I guess, IANAL) was appropriate against a man who chose not to freeze to death by staying with his stranded work vehicle. I imagine a lot of other judges thought it was inappropriate and would have ruled in favor of the employee.

Taking into account what a judge thinks lawmakers meant to say also gives the judges a lot of wiggle room in their pronouncements.

Your list of 5 things that matter is commendable. However, the last 3 things have been torn to shreds over the past 4 decades -- and were never that strong historically, either in the U.S. or elsewhere. Tradition and precedent are easily side-stepped when convenient. And, of course, you have the infamous Supreme Court decision effectively placing Bush in the White House that explicitly said it was not to be used as a precedent.

And, of course, everything gets thrown out when corruption comes into play!

[tacitusarc]

For anyone interested but previously unaware of the Gorsuch case:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/neil-gorsuch-and-the-case-of-...

https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/gorsuch-transam-t...

[shuntress]

My use of "literally" is only intended to convey the literal meaning of the word.

And thank you for providing some excellent example of why tradition, precedent, checks & balances, voting rights, and institutional trust are important.