Ugh

[madasacutsnake]

To be fair, Ashcroft is not talking about the courts per se being unaccountable. He is talking about the difference between lawmaking via the electorate voting for its legislators, who then pass laws or amendments (and if you don't like 'em, you don't vote the legislators in again) and the judicial branch, whose job it is supposed to be simply to explain and apply the laws in existence. They aren't supposed to make law. In that fashion, courts are not supposed to be accountable to the people. That's what the legislative branch is supposed to be for, and it is accountable to the electorate.

It was also my assumption that the writer is confusing "legislation" (the making of law) with the execution of the legislators' decisions. There is a distinction to be made between the "executive" and "judicial" functions" but there is an overlap in many cases.

However. Judges are there to enforce the law as it is; they have no discretion to dispense with the law for anyone, even a president.