In his State of the Judiciary, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson said that everyone must help defend the rule of law.
The remark appears to be a shot at both sides of the political spectrum, who lambast courts when they issue unfavorable rulings.
“This rule of law that we enjoy as Americans has rarely happened throughout human history,” Peterson said in his prepared remarks. “What we have had in this country for 250 years – as imperfect as it has been, especially here in the South – is so rare, and yet we often take it for granted. If we are to continue to enjoy the many blessings that flow from the rule of law, we cannot continue taking it for granted.
“Each of us – all of us – must do our part, whatever that may be, to defend the rule of law,” Peterson added. “A critical part is this: when you hear about judicial decisions whose outcomes you don’t like, don’t reflexively question the court’s legitimacy. It’s OK to disagree, and even protest. But the rule of law will not survive when the legitimacy of judicial decisions and those who make them is routinely questioned every time there is an unpopular outcome.”
Peterson acknowledged that the rule of law “has always been fragile,” as its “very nature” necessitates “the strong and the rich to accept results in favor of the weak and the poor.”
“It requires popular majorities of all kinds to accept outcomes in favor of small, unpopular minority groups,” Peterson said in his prepared remarks. “And it requires the most powerful of all – the government – to accept and obey limits on government power.”
