Why the Left Is Up In Arms Over Clint Bolick’s Appointment to the Arizona Supreme Court.

From The National Review via H/T at Instapundit:

What worries the Left is that Bolick shares with Justice Clarence Thomas, a mentor of his, the view that the Constitution is not a “living document” subject to changes in public opinion. “Take the words of the Constitution literally,” he told KJZZ radio this week. “When judges stray from the text of the Constitution and supplant [it with] their own ideas, like changing the words ‘public use’ into ‘public benefit,’ they’re amending the Constitution. That, to me, is beyond the scope of proper judicial action.”

Bolick’s appointment will have national implications, as it sends a clear signal that a staunch advocate of limits on judicial power can also have a belief that the Constitution requires vigorous enforcement of such basic rights as the right to earn a living and the right to be free of arbitrary government power. When he becomes a judge, Clint Bolick will be putting away the legal six-shooters with which he happily sued bureaucrats for a living. But his opinions will mark him as one of the most interesting judges serving at a high appellate level — and as a potential U.S. Supreme Court justice appointed by a future Republican president.

The rules are that lifelong lefty activists (like Ruth Bader Ginsburg) can be appointed to the bench because they have demonstrated a “passion for justice.” Righty activists, on the other hand, even if they’ve quite literally worked on behalf of the little guy, are “ideologues.”

He won't be a stealth candidate for SCOTUS.