Posted on 01/18/2006 9:59:57 AM PST by SirLinksalot
Anthony Kennedy—the new Sandra Day O'Connor.
Lost in last week's cacophony about the critical role of Sandra Day O'Connor as sole and exclusive swing voter on the U.S. Supreme Court was any sign of respect for the other sole and exclusive swing voter on the U.S. Supreme Court: Anthony M. Kennedy. Kennedy's majority opinion in today's big physician-assisted-suicide case serves as the perfect reminder of who's going to call the shots in the near future.
The 6-3 opinion in Gonzales v. Oregon—a decision upholding Oregon's physician-assisted-suicide law from attack by the Attorney General's Office—sharply outlines the court's Anthony Kennedy-shaped future. The dissenters are Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and—not surprisingly—Chief Justice John Roberts. In the majority you'll find the court's usual moderate-to-liberal lineup: John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, and Stephen Breyer. The other two votes for Oregon thus come from the "swingers": O'Connor, who will (barring some stunning revelation that he dances for money in women's lingerie) soon be replaced by Samuel Alito, and Kennedy. In other words, this opinion was Kennedy's latest big chance to swing for the bleachers, and swing he does.
While it's true that O'Connor has tended to vote with the majority more frequently than Kennedy, and that she has done so in some big 5-4 decisions, it's also true that in other extremely contentious areas, it is Kennedy, not O'Connor, who has swung the court leftward. It was Kennedy who weighed in with the broad rationale of the court's liberals on a key gay-rights case; Kennedy who voted with the court's liberals to strike down the death penalty for juveniles and the mentally disabled; and Kennedy who has joined with O'Connor (and David Souter) to reaffirm the basic right of a woman to have an abortion.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
OK, so who is now the new Anthony Kennedy?
"waiting for Stevens to retire...one way or the other.
at 85; I expect GWB to be looking for a replacement within the next three years..."
"He may take a dirt nap soon enough."
What about the dread Ginsburg? I heard she is not well.
I remember reading some time back, before O'Connor announced her retirement, that there were 3 possible SC openings for GW. O'Connor was a given due to illness, likewise Rehnquist. Does anybody remember the third person?
I love how Stevens, ginsberg, souter, breyer are referred to as "mdoerate to liberal". When are Scalia, thomas referred to as "moderate to conservative"?
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