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How You Can Fight Judicial Activism

By Felix Miller · dailysignal · 2026-10-26

Activist judges are a huge obstacle to enacting the Trump administration’s agenda.

Americans can point to case after case where a judge appears to put personal or political preferences ahead of the law. When courts stop applying the law as written and begin making policy from the bench, voters are right to ask what they can do about it.

There is no single cure for judicial activism, but citizens can start where they still have a direct voice: state and local judicial elections.

Federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, so voters do not elect them. Many state and local judges, however, do face voters, either in contested elections or later in retention elections. Those races give citizens a chance to demand information before entrusting someone with judicial power.

In Florida, judicial races are officially nonpartisan. State law prohibits a judicial candidate from campaigning as a member of a political party, and the ballot may not identify a candidate’s party affiliation. The theory is that removing party labels protects judicial impartiality. In practice, though, it often leaves ordinary voters with less information than political insiders have.

In contested judicial elections, a candidate’s registered party affiliation should appear on the ballot. If the candidate is not affiliated with a party, the ballot should say so. A party label would not tell voters everything about a candidate, but it would give them one more relevant fact before they make their choice.