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Justice Ginzburg Defends Foreign Law Use

The question of whether foreign law and court decisions should override laws created by the state legislatures and our U.S. Congress was defended by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Saturday, April 11, in an article in the NY Times.

Court decisions have the weight of law.   

“If we’re relying on a decision from a German judge about what our Constitution means, no president accountable to the people appointed that judge and no Senate accountable to the people confirmed that judge,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said at his confirmation hearing. “And yet he’s playing a role in shaping the law that binds the people in this country.”

But Ginsburg said:

“Why shouldn’t we look to the wisdom of a judge from abroad with at least as much ease as we would read a law review article written by a professor?” 

Read the entire piece in the NY Times.   CLICK HERE FOR A LINK.