ABSTRACT
Footnote 4 of United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 US 144 in 1938, is the most famous footnote in US constitutional history. It heralded the US Supreme Court's shift from judicial activism in defense of economic rights to judicial activism on behalf of civil rights and liberties and the integrity of the political process. Footnote 4 provided the rationale for advances in civil rights, privacy rights, the due process rights of criminal defendants. Carolene Products was one of several cases in which the Court repudiated its earlier defense of corporate and individual economic rights. Justice Harlan F. Stone suggested that the Court might also need to step in when the ordinary political process was not adequate to ensure justice. This may occur because either the legislation interfered with rights that were central to the political process, or it discriminated against "discrete and insular minorities." In holdings, the Court has been reluctant to expand civil liberties and rights.
