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A quick look at SCOTUS Justices...
John Paul Stevens, appointed by Ford, is 88 years old
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by Clinton, is 75 years old
Antonin Scalia, appointed by Reagan, is 72 years old
Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Reagan, is 71 years old
David Souter, appointed by George HW Bush, is 69 years old
Stephen Breyer, appointed by Clinton, is 69 years old
Clarence Thomas, appointed by George HW Bush, is 59
Sam Alito, appointed by George W Bush, is 55
John Roberts, appointed by George W Bush, is 53
Looking at todays Gitmo Detainee ruling, it was a 5-4 decision. Stevens, Ginsburg, Souter, Breyer and Kennedy agreed that detainees had rights/protection while Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalia disagreed.
John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsberg both want to retire and I believe I read were basically hanging on so Bush couldn't name another justice along the lines of Alito or Roberts. I doubt either will stick it out another four years even if McCain is elected, and McCain has promised his Justice nominations to the fundamental right as his election peace offering.
So if McCain gets elected, SCOTUS is looking at two far right appealing McCain appointees that will probably be in their early 50's, to join Chief Justice Roberts(53yo), Sam Alito(55yo), Clarence Thomas(59 yo) to control the Supreme Court for the next 20 years. Antonin Scalia would probably retire before McCain was out of office as well, just to keep his views secured on the bench for another two decades.
Basically there would be one Justice appointed by a Democrat remaining - Stephen Breyer.
Comments (7)
This is EXACTLY what all Democrats need to be aware of. It shouldn't matter if you're ticked off about a primary. This is MUCH bigger than who the Democrat nominee is, it's about wining this election and putting a Democrat in the White House. If we don't succeed then not only will the next 4 years be ugly, the next 20+ years will be ugly.
June 12, 2008 10:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sick of the whole "SCOTUS" thing. Where in the world did that come from. I don't even remember seeing it just a few year back. And what average Joe knows that this stands for the Supreme Court Of The United States. Since when do the words Of The get letters in abbrieviation. So either call them SCUS, the Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court, or the Supremes for gods sake. SCOTUS. I just don't get it.
June 12, 2008 11:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. Ditto for POTUS, CIC and other crappy acronyms. Just write "President" and "the Supreme Court."
June 12, 2008 11:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
The abbreviation SCOTUS has been around a lot longer than a few years. In fact, the earliest known usage dates to 1879.
June 13, 2008 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
To be fair, it's not always clear how a judge will rule througout his lifetime. This isn't the first time Kennedy and Souter (appointed by Republicans) have sided with the more liberal judges.
June 12, 2008 11:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Republicans have learned from those "mistakes". They've also learned to train their nominees not to say anything that Democrats in Congress could use to disqualify them with. That's why a McCain presidency is frightening. In order to stop the more frightening nominations, the Dems in Congress would have to grow a backbone, and, well…
June 13, 2008 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think POTUS comes from the Secret Service acronym. ( Maybe I watched too much West Wing.)
I will agree that SCOTUS sounds too much like a weird 18th, 19th century disease though, like pluerisy or scruffula or scrotum pus= SCOTUS. (Yea, I'm that sick :-P)
June 13, 2008 2:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
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