If Obama Loses: The Courts

[AnotherMcIntosh]

23. Thank you for your suggestion, but the Supreme Court is full. He does not have any current nominees

If you are referring to the two former nominees of President Obama who were appointed to the Supreme Court, then you may wish to consider a source such as judgepedia.

Of course, neither the Hispanic heritage of Justice Sonia Sotomayor nor her gender are factors in determining whether she tends to be more liberal or more conservative.

"A study of her 226 majority opinions since 2001 finds that [ONLY] 38% of her opinions could be clearly defined as liberal in nature with 49% of them falling clearly on the conservative end of the spectrum. She tends to be more conservative in criminal cases ..."
http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Sonia_Sotomayor

Although Justice Sotomayor tends to be more liberal with respect to her dissenting opinions, this does not negate the fact that she has written more conservative than liberal opinions and that she tends to be more conservative in criminal cases.

With respect to Justice Elena Kagan, likewise neither her religion nor her gender are factors in determining whether she tends to be more liberal or more conservative. (She, however, identifies with Conservative Judaism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elena_Kagan )

While some of us have high hopes for Justice Kagan, she does not have a sufficient track record for anyone to objectively say that she will turn out to be more liberal or more conservative. She came to the court without any judicial experience at either the state or federal levels. She has not written court opinions and the number of briefs that she has written are limited in number.

During her confirmation hearing, she already indicated that she does not favor judicial activism by saying:

"I think it is a great deal better for the elected branches to take the lead in creating a more just society than for courts to do so."
http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Elena_Kagan

That is not to say that she will ultimately be shown to be more conservative. She, in fact, may turn out to be more liberal. We just don't have a sufficient track record to make a fair judgment.