They kind of do. Federal judges have a great deal of latitude in what they are allowed to accomplish with a ruling. They have the power to effectively change

They kind of do. Federal judges have a great deal of latitude in what they are allowed to accomplish with a ruling. They have the power to effectively change the text of a law to mean what the judge says it should mean (granted, it must also pass appeal). It has been a problem for decades now that Congress will pass laws that aren't well thought out, then leave it to the judiciary to iron out the specifics. It's only recently that members of the judiciary began pushing back and ruling on the text of the law and saying the legislators should "fix" the obvious problems with the law. The term for this is colloquially, "legislating from the bench."