Conservatives have been fighting to reverse a liberal activist Supreme Court since the 1968 Nixon campaign. Now, almost 40 years later, we are on the verge of success. But have we lost interest?
The current court is very finely balanced between conservatives and liberals. There are 4 solid conservatives on the court, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Sam Alito. There are also 4 solid liberals, John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, and Stephen Breyer. Then there is Anthony Kennedy, who keeps wandering back and forth, with the outcome of every ideological case dependent on his whims.
Conservatives have already begun winning key cases in both the Supreme Court and lower courts. School vouchers, even for religious schools, have been upheld as constitutional. The Supreme Court recently upheld a Federal law banning partial birth abortion, even though the High Court and the lower courts had consistently struck down all previous bans. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts have a constitutional right to choose what values they want to uphold and promote, and can choose to hire only those who represent those values. Consequently, the Scouts cannot be found to have committed illegal discrimination in refusing to appoint openly gay Scoutmasters. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals also recently ruled that the Second Amendment really does protect an individual right to keep and bear arms, just like it says.
By April 20, 2009, ultraliberal John Paul Stevens will be 89 years old. He is unlikely to survive the next President's term on the court. If he is replaced by a true conservative like the other 4, the balance of the Court will shift decisively to the conservatives.
In addition, Ruth Bader Ginsburg looks every one of her 74 years and is reportedly in ill health. Before the end of the next President's term, she will be 80 years old. The next President will likely replace her as well. If another solid conservative is appointed, that would make 6 conservatives, 1 wandering moderate, and 2 liberals.
What an enormous victory for conservatives that would be. In addition to the social issues, this will make a big difference as well on such economic issues as property rights, including intellectual property, tort reform, business regulation, further school voucher cases, and others.
But are the conservatives still paying attention? They seem confused, disoriented, and diffident regarding the next election. They need to be focused on getting a President who will make appointments like Alito and Roberts, or even Scalia and Thomas. They also need to be focused on getting a Senate that will confirm them.
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National "Public" Radio: 5 Conservatives & 4 Liberals?
On Monday, government-sponsored broadcasting, Talk of the Nation on National Public Radio, bewailed the state of the United States Supreme Court: "The conservative five and the liberal four." To say that the Court has a conservative majority may say more about the commentator than about the Supreme Court.The Washington Post was slightly more tongue-in-cheek with its editorial by Andrew Cohen, "Conservatives go 4-4 today at the Supreme Court." It heartily agrees with NPR lamenting, "so strong is the conservative bent to the court right now." The Washington Post is welcome to spout anything it wants to as a private entity, but why do we pay taxes to support NPR's political opinion?
(http://blog.washingtonpost.com/benchconference/2007/06/conservatives_go_44_today_at_t.html?hpid=topnews)
The newest justices, Roberts and Alito, are not liberal. Conservative may be an accurate label for them. Scalia and Thomas also typically weigh in on the conservative side of a question. That would make for four conservatives.
Up until Roberts and Alito were nominated most media did not admit to "liberals" on the court. There were four who were considered not conservative--Stevens, Souter, Breyer and Ginsburg--but who would dare call a judge liberal?
Millions of Americans today would talk about the court as "the conservative four and the liberal five" rather than NPR's "conservative five and the liberal four."
REALITY: The court prior to Roberts and Alito probably had a plurality of liberals:
4 Liberals (Stevens, Breyer, Ginsburg and Souter)
2 Moderates (O'Connor and Kennedy)
3 Conservatives (Rehnquist, Thomas and Scalia)
Today's court may be balanced for the first time since before FDR:
4 Liberals (Stevens, Souter, Breyer and Ginsburg)
1 Moderate (Kennedy)
4 Conservatives (Roberts, Thomas, Scalia and Alito)
The Post's Andrew Cohen understands this at some level. He correctly identifies the moderate as "the most important swingman since Benny Goodman, Justice Anthony Kennedy." Yet Cohen babbles on about "the conservative bent to the right."
If people wanted balance, then the Court show swing conservative for 50-70 years to balance its liberal swing of the same.
Posted by RedLetterIdeas.com | June 27, 2007 10:29 PM
Posted on June 27, 2007 22:29