In a big speech on judicial appointments this past May, John McCain joined fellow conservatives in decrying "activist judges," the left-leaning boogeymen who allegedly decide cases based on their personal beliefs rather than the law. Of course, in the mind of the right-wing, politically-motivated jurisprudence is the sole province of the left. Conservatives, or "strict constructionists" as they like to be called, would never "legislate from the bench."

Not so fast, says University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein. In a study of over 20,000 court decisions, Sunstein found that the right boasts their fair share of activists, too. Among the Supreme Court justices most likely to strike down decisions by federal agencies, conservatives Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas top the list, only upholding agency decisions in 52 and 54 percent of cases, respectively. Justice John Paul Stevens, at 71 percent, has the lowest percentage of the four left-leaning justices.

So what does an "activist judge" really mean? Paul Waldman explains.

The truth is that an "activist judge" is a judge who makes a decision conservatives don't like. If they truly cared about the principle that judges shouldn't substitute their own opinions for the law, then they would be just as exorcised about "activist" decisions that served conservative goals as they are about those that serve progressive goals. But if anyone can name me a single judicial decision that served the right's ends and that conservatives protested on the grounds that it was too "activist," I'll eat my hat. And even a court's refusal to exercise power and overrule laws or precedents -- as courts at every level did in the Terri Schaivo case -- will be called "activist" if conservatives don't like the outcome

That's what makes a McCain presidency so frightening. While it's unclear which justices will hang up their robe during the next term, half of the high court's liberal wing -- Stevens (age 88) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (age 75) -- are likely considering it. And McCain has made quite clear who he'd like to see on the bench: activists. As The New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin wrote in May, "McCain plans to continue, and perhaps even accelerate, George W. Bush’s conservative counter-revolution at the Supreme Court."

(H/T Think Progress)