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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Courts: The conservative takeover will be complete
For anyone considering the 2012 elections importance to the future of the American judiciary, one fact stands out: next November, Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be seventy-nine years old. If a Republican wins the presidential election, he or she may have an opportunity to seat Ginsburgs successor, replacing the Supreme Courts most reliably liberal jurist with a conservative. That would mean that the Courtcurrently balanced almost elegantly between four liberals, four conservatives, and the moderate conservative Anthony Kennedywould finally tilt decisively to the right, thereby fulfilling Edwin Meeses dream, laid out in his famous 1985 speech before the American Bar Association, of reshaping the Court around one coherent jurisprudence of original intention. Meese, who was then Ronald Reagans attorney general, wanted nine conservative constitutional originalists on the Court. He may soon get his wish. A 2008 study by Richard Posner, a federal appeals court judge, and William Landes, a law professor at the University of Chicago, examined the voting records of seventy years of Supreme Court justices in order to rank the forty-three justices who have served on the Court since 1937. They concluded that four of the five most conservative justices to serve on the Supreme Court since 1937 sit on the Supreme Court today. Justice Clarence Thomas ranked first.
Kennedy, who is ranked tenth in that study, will be seventy- six next November. If a Republican successor of Obama gets to replace both Kennedy and Ginsburg, its fair to predict that the Roberts Court may include five or even six of the most conservative jurists since the FDR era. Following the ideological disappointment that was David Souter, Republicans have been spectacularly successful in selecting and confirming justices who consistently vote for conservative outcomes. Indeed, the replacement of moderate Sandra Day OConnor with Samuel Alito may have produced the most consequential shift at the Court in our lifetimes; in a few short years OConnors pragmatic legal doctrine in areas ranging from abortion to affirmative action to campaign finance reform has been displaced by rulings that would make Edwin Meeses heart sing.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/january_february_2012/features/the_courts034474.php
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)justiceischeap
(14,040 posts)They want to stack the federal benches too, that's why they keep delaying or denying Obama's nominations for federal judges.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)Quantess
(27,630 posts):kick:
jsmirman
(4,507 posts)And still live in hope that it can be rolled back.
Look what you posted - Kennedy - a "moderate conservative" is ranked 10th in that study!
The worst SC decisions of my lifetime have taken place over the last twelve years. Some of the more recent ones have been appalling. Fwiw, I actually have respect for both Alito and Roberts as jurists. But their decisions really, really stink!
hang a left
(10,921 posts)Lol Kennedy as a moderate, I almost peed my pants. This SC court has done more damage to our constitution than any in memory.
jsmirman
(4,507 posts)and between that and Citizens United, they really, really love corporations, and they really, really don't give a damn about people!
Brutal.