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The Darkest Domain: Deference, Judicial Review, And The Bill Of Rights, Daniel J. Solove

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Deference presents one of the greatest threats to liberalism in the modern age, undermining judicial review for fundamental constitutional rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and due process. In contrast to existing critiques which dismiss deference as an ideological tool wielded by conservative judges, this article explores deference more systematically and rigorously, addressing it at its conceptual underpinnings. Deference has a strong conceptual backbone rooted in the long-accepted principle that the judiciary must avoid doing what was done in Lochner - the substitution of judicial judgment for that of the policymaker or legislature. The article argues that …