McCain's Justice Should Scare Liberals
Conservatives frequently remind their voters that a president's appointments of like-minded jurists to the Supreme Court are a serious consideration on Election Day.
As a counterpoint, voters of a moderate or liberal bent should be equally or even more concerned given the makeup of the current nine justices.
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, delivered a speech earlier this month that was relegated to many back pages. He told an audience that his nominations to the court would be in the mold of Chief
Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito. Both were named by President Bush.
That should send shivers down the spines of those who have seen Roberts and Alito line up with justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas as a solid bloc of conservative votes.
On the liberal side, Justice John Paul Stevens is 88, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is in fragile health, and Justice David Souter has talked about wanting to return to his home in New Hampshire.
For those concerned about women's rights on abortion, gun control, and the environment for starters, McCain has laid down his guidelines and they should be disturbing to dissenters.
McCain has consistently voted against Roe vs. Wade issues since coming to the Senate. He promised the National Rifle Association last week that it could count on him in the White House.
Of course, nominations to the high court should not be the single issue for voters.
But Senator McCain's reputation for being a maverick and straying from Republican doctrine from time to time does not include the Supreme Court.
He's given us a fair and clear warning.
Tags: Supreme Court | presidential election 2008 | Supreme Court justices | John McCain
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Reader Comments
Your Court is ALREADY a church fraternity.
Actually, nominations to the high court SHOULD be the premier criteria for picking your choice of president---because that court "legislates" and "un-legislates" far more than Congress in matters that affect you. And there is NO APPEAL of their decisions. It's not just a woman's choice about having children. There will come a time, for instance, that Congress might want to create universal health care. Your nine justices could well decide, for instance, that any such thing is unconstitutional because if would infringe negatively on the "rights" of corporations which have already "built up" their insurance business models. Think that kind of stuff can't happen? Think again. The Supreme Court, after all, is the only reason that paper entities (corporations) have the rights of personhood now. Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito love corporations, not you.
By the way, no article about the make-up of the current court should ever omit mentioning that five out of nine of these guys (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy----yes, the conservative gang) are also members of a single church, Catholic. No kidding. Bush did that for you with his additions of the 4th and 5th ones in Roberts and Alito. YOUR COURT ALREADY IS A RELIGIOUS "CLUB" IN ITS MAJORITY.
Think I'm bashing Catholics? Not at all, the parishoners there are mostly good folks. But even they, and certainly the rest of America, should wonder why we were saddled with a fixed majority that were taught from birth that the Pope is infallible and "their" Church (together with its style of hierarchy and decision-making) is the only "real" one. Scalia will tell you he disregards all this. Common sense will tell you otherwise.
You CAN'T do a thing about past judicial appointments given to you by your Republicans. But you CAN alter the future ones, and we had all better think about that. It is the single most important reason to elect Obama/Clinton.
This is reason No. 1 to vote for McCain
This article should be read by any conservative in America who is considering not voting for McCain.
Yes, McCain doesn't agree with us on every issue -- and some are significant -- but he's on our side on the Supreme Court, which I believe is the most significant issue out there. He voted for Alito, Roberts and even Robert Bork -- ROBERT BORK!
We're one vote away from tossing Roe v. Wade into trash heap of history along with that other dreadful decision, Dred Scott (both are similar in that they classified an entire class of people as property).
Vote for John McCain.
Yeah, McCain is a thoughtful choice. The guy married 25 years to a massive beer business that encourages its customers to get "loose as a goose" and abandon all inhibitions is just who you need to "fix" the Supreme Court for church folks.
It's pretty hard to even imagine anything more "upside down", but single-issue voters don't mind at all.
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John W. Mashek covered politics in Washington for four decades with U.S. News & World Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Boston Globe. His primary beats were Congress, the White House, and national politics. He covered every presidential election from 1960 to 1996. He was a panelist in three televised presidential debates in 1984, 1988, and 1992.