Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) took steps Tuesday to please conservatives skeptical of his past, delivering a speech decrying judicial activism in North Carolina.

The Family Research Council (FRC), a leading evangelical-right organization, and Capitol Hill Republicans reacted positively to McCain blasting the “common and systematic abuse of our federal courts by the people we entrust with judicial power.”

Taking a page from President Bush’s 2004 campaign, McCain said “judicial activism” on issues like the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance has led to a hijacking of the Constitution by judges who are not elected.

“The moral authority of our judiciary depends on judicial self-restraint, but this authority quickly vanishes when a court presumes to make law instead of apply it,” McCain said.  “A court is hardly competent to check the abuses of other branches of government when it cannot even control itself.”

Tony Perkins, head of the FRC and a past critic of McCain, said his speech will be “well-received by millions of Americans alarmed by activist judges who undermine the rule of law by legislating from the bench.

“We applaud Sen. McCain for his support of federal judges who will apply the U.S. Constitution,” Perkins said in a statement. “He is correct in criticizing both federal judges who presume to ‘make law instead of apply it’ and the obstructionist Senate Democratic leaders who continue to deny hearings to well-qualified judicial nominees.”

House Republican Leader Rep. John Boeher (Ohio) also applauded McCain’s remarks.

“John McCain’s belief that judges should be judges — not policymakers — is shared by every American who believes in a limited, more accountable government,” Boehner said in a statement.

McCain hit his Democratic rivals for voting against the confirmations of both Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. He also announced his justice advisory committee, chaired by former Solicitor General Theodore Olson and conservative stalwart Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.).

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), harshly criticized McCain’s speech, using it as another opportunity to tie McCain’s “radical, right-wing judicial philosophy” to Bush.

“No matter how far they have gone to restrict our fundamental rights or their clear records of gutting the reforms John McCain claims to care about, he has put loyalty to his party and a radical agenda ahead of the American people,” Dean said in a statement. “When voters see John McCain’s real record, they are not going to elect a radical rubberstamp who voted for every one of President Bush’s activist judges and promises hundreds more just like them.”

Neera Tanden, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s policy adviser, said the New York Democrat “won’t take lectures on the right way to approach the Constitution from Sen. McCain, who voted for extreme conservative judges like Justice [Clarence] Thomas.

“In an effort to pander to conservative voters, Sen. McCain has signaled his intention to appoint right-wing judges who are committed to rolling back women’s rights and civil rights, elevating the interests of big business over the rights of workers and consumers, affirming executive branch power grabs, and undermining our common core freedoms,” Tanden said in a statement.

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign also criticized the speech, saying McCain’s “Straight Talk Express took another sharp right turn.

“Barack Obama has always believed that our courts should stand up for social and economic justice, and what’s truly elitist is to appoint judges who will protect the powerful and leave ordinary Americans to fend for themselves,” Tommy Vietor, an Obama spokesman, said in a statement.