This Op-Ed article challenges the notion that judges should enforce the law, not make the law. In a common-law jurisdiction, appellate judges have the authority, and indeed the duty, to make law. Judging involves more than enforcing the will of the legislature. The vast majority of the law that governs us is the common law. Judges, particularly at the highest levels, make law continuously as they tend the common law, advancing or retarding its growth. The public needs to know more about candidates for judicial office than whether they will strictly interpret legislation. They need to ask in what direction will candidates take our state's common law.
