You shall appoint magistrates and officials for your tribes, in all the settlements that the Lord Your God is giving you, and they shall govern the people with due justice. You shall not judge unfairly; you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the pleas of the just. Justice, justice shall you pursue (Tzedek, tzedek tirdof!), that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord Your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 16:18-20 (From the Torah Portion, “Shoftim”)

Justice, justice shall you pursue! Our Torah proclaims. It does not proclaim “Status quo, status quo, shall you pursue!” In 1954, Oliver Brown, with the help of the NAACP, brought to the US District Court for Kansas a request for an injunction that would forbid the segregation of Topeka’s public Schools, in a case famous throughout the world, “Brown v. Board of Education.” The US District Court Judges for Kansas did agree with the plaintiff. In their decision, they wrote:
“Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children….A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn.”
However, they did not rule against the Board of Education due to Plessey v. Ferguson, a precedent that allowed separate but equal school systems for blacks and whites, and no Supreme Court had overturned Plessey yet.

Brought to the US Supreme Court, the Justices were presented with a case that had to be decided upon whether or not desegregated schools deprived black children of equal protection of the law. Chief Justice Earl Warren, in the face of great criticism for his
”chutzpah” to rule against the status quo, wrote:
“Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought, are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the 14th amendment.”

Today’s call from the political right against “Activist Judges” causing the “unraveling” of the moral fabric of our society is becoming a stain on the most conservative elements in our country. To suggest that judges should be anything but activists is to pretend that our justice system doesn’t abide by Deuteronomy’s command: “Justice, justice, shall you pursue!” Our judges on local as well as national levels must be activists for freedom, equal protection, and the fulfillment of not only the letter but the spirit of the law. When it comes to ensuring that our elections, our protections, and our affections are given equal protection, I want my judges to ACTIVELY pursue justice for all.