'legalize' = "refer disputes about X to the courts"

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

 From a piece by Jeffrey Rosen in Sunday's Washington Post:

Judges today are being catapulted into public view as personalities
who seem fair game for attack rather than as anonymous oracles of the
law. Part of the reason for this is the legalization of politics:
Both liberals and conservatives are increasingly asking judges to
decide issues -- from the right to die to presidential elections --
that politics are unable to resolve.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2536-2005Mar26.html

As best I can tell, no dictionary has this sense.

Geoff Nunberg