How Many Supreme Court Justices will the next President get to appoint??

[Dems Will Win]

Anyone know? This issue should be brought front and center, given the record of the Felonious Five and their stealing of the election!

That alone could sway some still Undecided Voters...

[madmax]

1. 2 maybe 3.... n/t

[papau]

16. Campaign 2004: Election likely to alter make-up of top court

Campaign 2004: Election likely to alter make-up of top court


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04222/358873.stm

Campaign 2004: Election likely to alter make-up of top court
Monday, August 09, 2004

By Michael McGough, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- It may not loom as large for voters as Iraq or the economy, but the direction of the U.S. Supreme Court -- and how it rules on everything from abortion to the treatment of suspected terrorists to whether schoolchildren can be asked to pledge their allegiance to "one nation under God" -- could depend on who is elected president in November.

The campaigns and most ardent supporters of President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry are keenly aware that three members of the court -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 79, and Justices John Paul Stevens, 84, and Sandra Day O'Connor, 74 -- are widely expected to step down during the next presidential term. The names of possible Bush or Kerry appointees already are circulating in legal circles, and there is virtually no overlap between the lists.<snip>

The stakes are high. The liberal interest group People for the American Way points out that several decisions in the court's 2003-2004 term were decided by 5-4 or 6-3 votes, including rulings that allowed suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo the right to challenge their confinement; that blocked enforcement of a law designed to protect children from online pornography; that allowed individuals to sue state governments for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act; and that left the door open to lawsuits challenging the partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts.

The court also is likely at some point to take up a federal law that prohibits certain abortions. In June, a San Francisco federal judge ruled that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act is an unconstitutional infringement of a woman's right to have an abortion. The Bush administration appealed that ruling last week to a federal appeals court.<snip>


(Sen. John F. Kerry ...Judge Merrick B. Garland, 51,...Robert A. Katzmann, 51,...David Tatel, 62,...Jose Cabranes, 63,... Sonia Sotomayor, 50,... Diane Wood, 54,...Judge Adalberto Jordan of Miami, 43....former U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman...52..., former acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger..63... or Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan...44.... Richard A. Gephardt and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.".)

[onehandle]

2. More than one.

Could be three.

This is why Nader is a Fool.

[WI_DEM]

3. as many as 3-4

I think. I think that O'Connor, Rehnquist, and Stevens for sure.

[George_Bonanza]

6. Those are like the three moderate-to-liberal ones, right?

[WI_DEM]

9. Stevens is considered a liberal

O'Connor a moderate swing vote, but the Chief is generally in the conservative corner--but not always.

[swag]

4. Three. This is the major sleeper issue of the campaign.

This election determines in so many ways the future of the republic.

[AntiCoup2K4]

5. This issue needs to be pushed hard

Actually, in interests of full disclosure, this issue and the environment are the ONLY two reasons I'm voting this November.

[benburch]

7. 3-5

Depending on how many we impeach!

[PsN2Wind]

8. I'm wondering

if some of the justices that picked Bush for prez have had second thoughts, O'Connor comes to mind. There was much talk prior to the selection that some of the justices wanted to retire but were going to hold out because they didn't want Clinton to name their replacement. None of them have bailed at this point so maybe, just maybe, they are concerned with the ruination of our country by the Bush cabal and do not want him naming their replacements. After all, politics aside, I do believe that most, except Scalia and Thomas, want to be written about in history in a positive fashion and not as judges that contributed to the end of democracy.

[Killarney]

13. I've thought the same about O'Connor.

There's a reason she isn't retiring this year.

[PsN2Wind]

17. For sure O'Connor

I thought from the way she had been talking prior to the election that as soon as Bush was elected, if he was elected, and had a chance to get his feet under him, she was going to pull the pin and return to Arizona. Then after the selection she saw the light.

[buycitgo]

10. none, if it's Kerry

pugs won't let him

same thing should happen to bush if he steals the election again

[WI_DEM]

18. No I think Justice Stevens would retire if a democrat is elected

at the very least.

[Estel]

11. Another point

There is nothing in the Constitution regarding the number of justices. Apparently, that is up to Congress. So... if there is a very partisan Congress and Kerry is President, it is conceivable that they would just reduce the number of justices as the moderate or liberal ones retire. This was quite common before the Civil War.

[buycitgo]

14. you sure it's up to congress?

I know FDR tried to up the number, but they accused him of packing the court, which he was, but it was cause of congress

can't remember details, but it was pretty fascinating

[Estel]

20. I saw an interview with Sandra Day O'Connor

and this is what she said

[Estel]

21. Also, FDR was being greedy...

except for George Washington, he got to appoint the most supreme court justices -- eight!!

[noamnety]

12. Don't forget, they appoint other judges also

These are some of the judges Bush has appointed:

Judge, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Charles Pickering (nominated, voted down, appointed during recess) referred to a 1994 hate crime incident involving three men who burned an 8-foot cross on the lawn of an interracial family while using racial epithets as "a drunken prank." The family had been a frequent target of harassment in their small rural town, including having bullets fired into their home and "KKK" painted nearby on the street. Opposed by the Human Rights Campaign. Called the one person/one vote decision “obtrusive,” and described it as a legal principle that legislatures have reluctantly learned they "must live with."

Judge, Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Jeffrey Sutton, has argued that unnecessarily keeping people with disabilities in institutions was not a form of discrimination. Argued that Medicaid beneficiaries cannot sue to enforce their rights. Persuaded the Supreme Court to rule against a nurse with breast cancer on the ground that the Americans With Disabilities Act does not apply to state employers.

Judge, Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Priscilla Owen, Enron's political action committee gave Owen $8,600 for her successful Supreme Court bid in 1994. Two years later, Owen wrote the majority opinion that reversed a lower court order and reduced Enron's school taxes by $15 million. Since 1993, Enron contributed $134,058 — more than any other corporation — to Owen and other members of the Texas Supreme Court. A study by Texans for Public Justice found that the court ruled in Enron's favor in five out of six cases involving the company since 1993.

more here:
http://ideamouth.com/appointments_and_disappointments.h...

[wellstone dem]

15. I've been wondering

if it speaks volumes about the opinion of these 3 people about W, it would have been natural for them to resign during this administration because of their age and because of Bush being Republican. But they did not. I wonder if this is because they were afraid of who would be appointed to replace them.

[DaveSZ]

19. I'm one who thinks

that the number of justices should be expanded.

O'connor has all the power with only 9.