When you think of the conservative media and the Supreme Court, a single talking point likely come to mind: activist judges!

Similarly, when you think of the same conservative media and the confirmation of Justice Sonya Sotomayor, a single word like comes to mind: empathy.

At a speech in Florida on Friday, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy pushed back against both common right-wing media narratives. The Associated Press reports:

The president drew wide criticism from Republicans last year when he said Sonia Sotomayor would bring “empathy” to the bench. Critics said that meant judges could bring personal whims and prejudices, but Kennedy disagreed.

“You certainly can't formulate principles without being aware of where those principles will take you, what their consequences will be,” he told an audience of about 750 at a joint meeting of the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches and the Palm Beach County Bar Association. “Law is a human exercise and if it ceases to be that it does not deserve the name law.”

[...]

Kennedy, who was nominated to the court by President Ronald Reagan, also dismissed an oft-repeated Republican criticism of “activist judges.”

“An activist court is a court that makes a decision you don't like,” he said.