Posted on 03/08/2008 11:01:28 AM PST by vietvet67
Justice John Paul Stevens turns 88 in April, and by January 2009 five other justices will be from 69 to 75 years old. If Barack Obama is elected president, he will probably--with the benefit of resignations by liberal justices eager for him to be the president who chooses their successors--have the opportunity to appoint two or three Supreme Court justices in his first term, with another two or three in a potential second term. That prospect ought to focus the attention of all Americans who want a Supreme Court that practices judicial restraint and respects the proper realm of representative government. For Obama, if elected, would certainly aim to fill the Supreme Court--and the lower federal courts--with liberal judicial activists.
Although Obama has served in the Senate for barely three years, he has already established a record on judicial nominations and constitutional law that comports with his 2007 ranking by the National Journal as the most liberal of all 100 senators. Obama voted against the confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, and he even joined in the effort to filibuster the Alito nomination. In explaining his vote against Roberts, Obama opined that deciding the "truly difficult" cases requires resort to "one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy." In short, "the critical ingredient is supplied by what is in the judge's heart." No clearer prescription for lawless judicial activism is possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
The only big screwup I see is Souter. Otherwise, the GOP has always given us better judges than the Dems, at least in my lifetime. I didn't say perfect judges (is there such a thing?) just better judges.
Well you did qualify this by saying "in my lifetime" so...., but the R's have done just as pitiful a job over the last several decades as the dems.
Eisenhower (R) gave us Earl Warren, easily one or the two or three worst justices ever; Brennan and Stewart, leftist lunatics both.
Nixon (R): Blackman and Powell who gave us abortion, along with another Nixon appointee Berger (and the aforementioned Brennan and Stewart)---yes, Eisenhower and Nixon appointed 5 of the 7 justices that gave us Roe v Wade.
Ford (R) gave us the left winger Stephens.
Reagan (R) gave us Sandra Day O' Left-Wing and Anthony Kennedy who is no conservative.
Bush the Elder (R) gave us Souter the Puke.
Based on history, no need to vote for a R just to give us better justices because it doesn't happen. I'd pick Kennedy's Byron White over any of the "republican" justices during the last 50 years.
That scare tactic has been used with presidential elections for years.
It's ridiculous to call this analysis a "scare tactic". This is how rational people compare candidates, weigh the likely outcomes, and then decide how to place a vote to ensure as close an outcome as possible to their preferences.
McCain voted yes on Priscilla Owen, William Pryor, Janice Brown, etc for Circuit Judges and voted yes for Roberts and Alito for SCOTUS. Clinton and Obama voted NO on all of them.
It's absolutely clear that McCain and Obama/Clinton have radically different preferences regarding judges and judicial nominations is an area of immense power for a President with long-term and far-reaching political consequences.
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The “True Conservatives” who say that are what Lenin called “useful idiots.”
Not really.
<p<
Reagan also supported Amnesty, the Brady Bill and raised taxes.
McCain is younger than more than half the Court but he’s “too old to serve” because he’s not a Democrat. LOL!
Granted, there’s no guarantee McCain or any other Republican will appoint conservative judges, but we have no chance of getting an even moderate judge with either Marxist on the other side. SCOTUS is reason alone to hold your nose and vote McCain.
It was that same Republican president who gave us Clarence Thomas too. A .500 batting average on judges is better than the .000 we got from Clinton.
I said there’s a chance with McCain. With Obama, we would get nothing.
I agree with your “tolerably sane” comment. Thank you for improving my thoughts on this.
thanks, bfl
I have a lot of reasons to distrust McCain, but these aren't among them. Most Republican senators did vote for that looney old leftist Ginsberg, because that was back in the days when they thought the President had the right to choose Supreme Court justices. And a number of Republicans supported Miers and it may just have been one of the very few times McCain decided to support Pres. Bush.
For the most part, yes I like them (in order: Thomas, Scalia, Alito and Roberts), but White easily outpaces all four of them. Don’t be fooled, all five of the justices would be considered wildly liberal and part of the lunatic left by the founding fathers.
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