Judicial restraint

Former Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., considered to be one of the first major advocates of the philosophy, would describe the importance of judicial restraint in many of his books. One noted academic described Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter, a Democrat appointed by Franklin Roosevelt, as the 'model of judicial restraint'. When the conservative Rehnquist Court overturned some of the precedents of the more liberal Warren Court, Time magazine said he was not following the theory of judicial restraint. However, Rehnquist was also acknowledged as a more conservative advocate of the philosophy. Judicial minimalists argue that judges should put great emphasis on adherence to stare decisis and precedent. Minimalists argue that judges should make only minor, incremental changes to constitutional law to maintain that stability. They ask judges to do this by creating small, case-specific rulings rather than broad, sweeping rulings. The political question doctrine encourages courts to decline to rule in certain categories of politically controversial cases. Under this theory, a court acknowledges that the Constitution might have been violated but declines to act. It is often described as a type of judicial restraint, although it can be considered a form of judicial activism against plaintiffs whose rights have been violated and find their cases dismissed.