Pundits have been so riveted on the impact Scott Brown’s election is having on ObamaCare that they are overlooking a bigger deal: Supreme Court appointments … likely to be a relatively frequent happening since the average age of Supreme Court justices is about 90 years old.
Pre-Brown, Pres Obama could name practically any wingnut he wanted when a Supreme Court vacancy occurred … tilting the Court further left.
Now, #41 can join his GOP colleagues to block anybody designee who leans too far out of the mainstream.
This could come back to haunt Pres Obama since he voted against Alito, saying that he was “qualified but too conservative”.
Those words will come back to haunt the President.
January 26, 2010 at 6:17 pm |
The judges who are up for replacement are liberal – Alito, Thomas and Roberts are all young, and Scalia and Kennedy are not as old as Stevens or Ginsburg. Moreover, Breyer and Roberts/Scalia are the real intellectual power houses and they are not going anywhere anytime soon. Therefore, barring murder or serious illness, it’s far more likely that the court will remain conservative for many years to come and that Scott is not a big deal at all.