In the media, we often hear about the Executive and Legislative branches – especially since we have Obama in office and Health Care reform passed.
So it’s not often at all that we hear about the Judicial branch. There haven’t been any remarkably controversial or huge supreme court cases on the docket, so the news around them have been rather slow. Honestly, the last time there was any significant coverage on the Supreme Court was when Sotomayor was appointed to the bench.
While there isn’t any significant news going on right now, a story caught my attention on the Huffington Post.
Justice Stevens is currently 90 years old and plans on retiring during Obama’s term so he may appoint another liberal. I honestly had not thought about that initially, but it makes sense. Most hard-hitting cases that set a very strong course of precedence are normally split 5-4. As it stands, there are currently 4 liberals sitting on the Supreme Court – with Justice Kennedy deciding the vote (being a moderate).
I’m sure that when Justice Stevens retires, there will be much criticism from those (Republicans – I’m assuming) who feel that this is not correct protocol. Anything that happens in this administration is criticized, despite the fact that the same thing has happened in every administration prior to this. I see absolutely nothing wrong with it – I think it is the only way to do it. If you want to have things put through and set into law, there needs to be justices that will support your decisions. It would make no sense if you were a Liberal president who appoints a Republican – that is completely defeating the purpose.
We’ll see though when Justice Stevens retires and who will be picked. The Huffington Post article goes through a few possibles, with Elena Kegan (Solicitor General of the US) being the frontrunner. Only time will tell, but I suspect it will be rather soon.
Katastrophic Konfessionals 