As levels of freedom decline, courts stop pretending to protect individual rights. Instead, they protect the powers that destroy individual rights.
They are, in that regard, enemies of individual freedom and democracy. Individuals in dying republics can often muster enough votes to put officials in place who will respect individual rights.
Individual rights are anathema to those dependent on taxation. So that they may continue stealing, the other side puts courts in place that will diminish the right to private property while increasing the right to steal.
Usually, courts only allow habitual criminals to steal. Large, public-sector unions are allowed to take from members. Elected officials are allowed to take from voters. No individual is allowed own any property that is truly private.
Courts are rarely the friends of liberty. Their nature is to be the ally of oppression. Personalities that delight in authority are often drawn to the courts.
The worst courts are in the most authoritarian countries. Most of them are bribable. It is harder to tell which judges take bribes in less authoritarian countries.
Any of us are courting disaster if we take an issue involving the protection of individual, constitutional rights before a judge.
