Antonin Scalia visits

The Supreme Court Judge, Antonin Scalia, has just given a speech today in Auckland. Although well known in the states for his conservate views, he is almost a judge from another planet here due to his implacable opposition to judicial activism, the favourite doctrine of the Dark Lord of Thorndon and still prevalant among our judiciary.

While my own politics are much more liberal than Scalia's and I believe there is some place for judicial activist decisions, it is my belief that the judges of New Zealand have taken the doctrine too far thereby causing strained relations between Parliament and the Judiciary. Chief among the culprits is our very own Chief Justice, Sian Elias, whose decisions have been less than wise. It is with that that I found the following paragraph interesting:

He had a private meeting with New Zealand's Chief Justice, Dame Sian Elias, before his address yesterday. They talked, he said later, about courts' common problems.

I wonder what he would have thought about some of her past utterings, such as challenging parliamentary sovereignity and criticizing our government to the British?