I once dated an attorney who had clerked for Blackmun. He was very proud of it. He was fun and funny, he was attractive and charming, he was rich, kind, and a very devoted father. But when I found out he had helped to write Roe, I broke up with him. It’s true that forty years ago we knew much less about embryology than we do today, but even so, the thought was intolerable. My friends tell me I was a fool.
Blackman was appointed by a Republican (Richard Nixon). Earl Warren (Eisenhower), David Souter (George H.W. Bush) and John Paul Stevens (Ford) were other Republican appointments. George W. Bush wanted to put Harriet Myers on the court and did appoint Chief Justice Roberts, the deciding vote on Obamacare.
Electing a Republican president does not necessarily mean conservatives will be appointed to the Court, just as electing a Republican Senate does not mean Republicans will block leftist appointees to the Court by a Democrat President. Ruth Bader Ginsberg was confirmed to the US Supreme Court by a vote of 96 to 3 with an overwhelming majority of Republicans voting for her despite her long term leftist activist history.
We should keep in mind that Antonin Scalia is 77 years old. Whoever appoints his replacement will have the potential to shift the balance on the Court forever. Would a President Romney, President McCain, President Christie, or President Jeb Bush appoint another Scalia or would a compromise candidate in the mold of David Souter be selected? If Barack Obama appoints the Scalia replacement his nominee will undoubtedly be in the mold of Sotamayor and Kagan. Will Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Orin Hatch, Lamar Alexander, Susan Collins, John Cornyn and others fight to keep the Supreme Court from shifting hard left in the same way the Democrats successfully fought to keep Robert Bork off the Court and almost succeeded defeating the Clarence Thomas nomination.
Once the Court goes, so goes the second amendment and likely the first.