JUDICIAL CONDUCT ACT
James Madison, who is often called the Father of America’s Constitution, once said, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary…. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.â€
Recently, a bill that seeks to discourage judicial activism was introduced in Congress.
H.R. 2898, the Judicial Conduct Act, “refreshes†the grounds for judicial discipline and serves as a reminder that legislating from the bench is an impermissible judicial function.
To control power’s corrupting influence in the hands of sinful men, our Founding Fathers divided the power structure of our government into three branches. This created a system of checks and balances between them. When one of the three branches, whether legislative, executive, or judicial, oversteps their boundaries and exercises power belonging to another, it may, as Madison also observed, “justly [pronounce] the very definition of tyranny.†In other words, no single branch should become more powerful than the other branches.
According to a recent American Bar Association poll, the American people by a margin of nearly two to one (56% to 30%) understand that judicial activism has reached a crisis stage.
Through this bill, activist judges will be put on notice that the current Congress not only has the will, but also the authority to address the problem of judges who usurp legislative authority.
What YOU can do to help!
Contact your representative and urge them to support the Judicial Conduct Act
(H.R. 2898).
Take a few moments and send an email to your representative by entering your zip code where indicated. If you want to contact your member of Congress by telephone, you may reach them through the Capitol Hill switchboard at (202) 224-3121.






