What's In A Name?

*Warning the following explaination contains legal mumbo-jumbo.  Not       for the faint-hearted!*

    Carolene's name comes from a famous footnote in constitutional law, or rather, the most famous footnote in constitutional law.  The case was United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144 (1938) (opinion by Justice Stone).  It was about a federal prohibition against shipping milk interstate, but that is not important.  What is important is the fourth footnote, where Justice Stone puts forth a theory of when a sctricter level of review should be made by the judiciary (unelected judges) against acts of the other agencies of government (political bodies representing in theory the will of the people).  In a crude nutshell, my apologies to my constitutional law professors, footnote four is about when the judiciary should act against the will of the majority.  There are three instances, Justice Stone says, that should elicite judicial review: when the Bill of Rights have been violated, when there is a "discrete" and "insular" minority being affected, or when the political process fails.
     The basis of judicial review proffered in Carolene Products footnote four was behind landmark cases such as Brown v. Bd. of Ed. and Plyler v. Doe.  Footnote four provides for judicial intervention when there is a breakdown in the democratic process.  This is an important concept because it effects the liberty afforded us under our legal system.  Footnote four reconizes the importance of limiting the role of unelected judges, except when the situation elicits intervention on behalf of minorities and civil rights protected under the Constitution.
     The current Supreme Court has abandoned the role set for it in Carolene Products.  The Court's concept of liberty has changed throughout the years, and I think that the liberty set forth in footnote four is the most protective of both the will of the political majority and the civil rights of the minority.  I'll stop before I really start preaching. 
     So I named my dog after this.  What does that say about me? That I'm looney? maybe.  That I need a life outside of law school? probably.  That I'm passionate about liberty? Definintely. 
    I think Carolene is a distinguished, strong name.  Call your dog Spot or Fluffy, but I call my dog what I believe in.  --Ok I know I'm getting way to ideological about a dog name! 
     
In case this hasn't bored you enough, check out:
Powell, Carolene Products Revisited, 82 Colum. L. Rev. 1087 (1982).
Lusky, Footnote redux: A Carolene Products reminiscence, 82 Colum. L.         Rev. 1093 (1082).
Fiss, The Supreme Court, 1978 term - Foreward: The forms of justice, 93        Harv. L. Rev. 1 (1979). 
Ball, Judicial protection of powerless minorities, 59 Iowa L. Rev. 1059             (1974).