Kennedy Seen as The Next Justice In Court's Middle

[tocqueville]

Alito Expected to Tilt Conservative

By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; Page A04

Alito's arrival, however, may turn the O'Connor Court into the Kennedy Court. If, as many expect, Alito forms a four-vote conservative bloc with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, that would leave Justice Anthony M. Kennedy -- a conservative who has occasionally voted with liberals on gay rights, the death penalty and abortion -- as the court's least predictable member.

"Assuming the predictions about Alito's views are correct, he turns Justice Kennedy into a swing vote on a lot of issues," said Pamela Karlan, a professor of law at Stanford University who teaches a course on the current Supreme Court.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/30/AR2006013001356.html?sub=AR

[suffragette]

1. And one of the key issues coming up soon is in the next paragraph

"No case illustrates the new dynamic better than the challenge to a Republican-drafted congressional redistricting plan for Texas, which the court will hear on March 1. The stakes in the case are huge and could include eventual control of the closely divided House."

They want it all and to leave we the people with nothing.

I won't stop caring. I won't stop working, but damn I feel weary right now.

[aquart]

2. We have to place our hopes on one of the Filthy Five?

[fujiyama]

3. Well O'Conner was a member of that as well

She was a bit more moderate than Kennedy but I would say she was slightly more reliable as someone not as likely to vote against abortion rights.

I see the court tilting more rightward, but Kennedy wasn't quite the extremist as Scalia or Thomas. But if he leaves (or worse yet Stevens) under a repuke president, then I'll say the nation is truly fucked. IF he gets replaced under a Dem administration, we may have a chance to salvage the court.

[aquart]

4. Goody. Abortion rights.

Right now, I don't see that as the big problem.

Maybe it's the menopause.

[JI7]

5. how much do we know about Roberts ?

i still hope that he will be more like Kennedy than Scalia. not enough to bet on it, but just one of those things where you have no other choice but to hope for something that isn't so bad.