Submitted to a Candid World

The next President will appoint at least two, and probably three, Supreme Court Justices. It’s sad to say, but Justices Stevens is growing old, and Justice Souter wants out. I’ll miss you both.

If John McCain appoints their replacements, it will be the end of Roe v. Wade at the least, and the end of the Constitution as a document of social justice, at most.

(more…)

Last week’s Boston Legal Episode (“The Court Supreme”) was, setting aside the unrealistic elements of the argument scene and an odd sub-plot, a politically important and largely accurate look at the Supreme Court’s more recent jurisprudence. In it, Alan Shore (fictional attorney extraordinaire) excoriates the Court, to its face, for selling out to conservative political interests and ransacking the past fifty years of precedent, while all the while pretending to be non-biased, apolitical, and steady-state.

Right on. While the rest of the nation cheers, as perhaps his only successes, Bush’s decisions to appoint the handsome, accomplished, and well-spoken Chief Justice John Roberts, and the allegedly non-controversial Justice Samuel Alito, the legal academy has spent the past year wringing its hands in fury at the outright politicization of the body, behind a smoke-screen of nonpartisanship. And it could not be more important for the public to hear this point made publicly, and made well, as there is no question in my mind that a McCain Administration would only continue this descent.

Thank you, Alan Shore. I’ll explain, below the line. (more…)