Free Republic

In 2006, Elena Kagan hailed Israeli supreme court justice Aharon Barak as her “judicial hero”: other folks view him much less favorably than Kagan does—and that she may have a strange view of what “democracy” is and what the “rule of law” entails. Here’s some of what Seventh Circuit judge Richard A. Posner has to say about Barak (in his book How Judges Think, pp. 362-368)*: " One of the most prominent of the aggressively interventionist foreign judges is Aharon Barak…. [H]is book on judging is Exhibit A for why American judges should be wary about citing foreign judicial decisions…....

NEW YORK – President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, once called a judge universally regarded as one of the most extreme liberal activist high court justices in history "my judicial hero." "He is the judge who has best advanced democracy, human rights, the rule of law and justice," stated Kagan in September 2006 introductory remarks at a Harvard University award ceremony. Kagan was referring to Aharon Barak, the retired president of the Supreme Court of Israel, who at the time was receiving the Peter Gruber Foundation 2006 Justice Prize at Harvard.

An e-mail written by Supreme Court President Aharon Barak made justifiable waves last week - but for the wrong reason. What grabbed headlines was Barak's citation of Justice Minister Haim Ramon's prediction that were the Knesset to extend the current Citizenship Law unchanged, the High Court of Justice would overturn it. That, however, was hardly news to anyone who read last week's 6-5 ruling upholding the law, since one of the majority justices stated explicitly that he considered the law unconstitutional, and refrained from striking it down only because it expires in two months anyway. What was truly noteworthy about...

Feb. 12, 2003 Court cleans the slate for Israeli-Arab lawmaker By DAN IZENBERG Advertisement The High Court of Justice on Wednesday told MK Azmi Bishara that it would issue a ruling making it clear that a previous Supreme Court decision that was sharply critical of him could not be used against him. The ruling by a panel of three justices including Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, Ayala Procaccia and Dalia Dorner came in response to a petition by the Israeli-Arab human rights organization Adalah on Bishara's behalf, asking the court to repeal the previous decision altogether. But Barak told Adalah...