You hear the complaints about "activist judges," but there's something very important to keep in mind: judges rule on cases brought into the court system.
And those cases are often filed to push the envelope on current law, to take the law in places where legislatures fear to tread.
The ACLU is known for this, and David Cole is its legal director. He wrote a book on using the courts to expand rights: Engines of Liberty: The Power of Citizen Activists to Make Constitutional Law. David Cole joined us in 2016, and we return to the interview here.