Aging Supreme Court justices may open seats for next president

[babylonsister]

Aging Supreme Court justices may open seats for next president
By Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — Senior citizens dominate the Supreme Court. Some will leave in the next four years, and this year’s election for president will determine who’ll fill any vacancies on the court, President Barack Obama or President Mitt Romney. Whichever party is in charge, a vacancy in the next presidential term seems a foregone conclusion, perhaps more than one.

Four Supreme Court justices are over the age of 70: Stephen Breyer is 74, Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia are 76 and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pancreatic cancer survivor, is 79.

Ginsburg, for one, has hinted that she intends to match the court tenure of the late Justice Louis Brandeis, a goal that, if held to, would have her retiring in 2015. That’s within the next presidential term.

“I was appointed at age 60, the same age that Louis Bidenz Brandeis was when he was appointed to the court,” Ginsburg told a George Washington University audience last year. “He stayed until he was (82). So I do have a way to go.”

The last 10 justices to depart the Supreme Court had an average age of nearly 80, though John Paul Stevens skewed this average upward when he stepped down in 2010 at the age of 90.

If any or all leave the court, the ensuing confirmation struggles could shape law and politics for years to come. Yet despite the court’s significance to their own futures, neither Obama nor Romney has dwelled on the subject. Tellingly, neither man even mentioned the court in his nomination acceptance speech.

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/10/01/170235/aging-supreme-court-justices-may.html

[spanone]

1. imagine a romney court

[babylonsister]

2. No. I can't, don't want to, my head will explode. nt

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. That's really scary. I would not want Romney to be the one to replace Justice Ginsburg.

People don't seem to make the connection that it's important who makes these appointments. I hope Harry Reid changes the Senate rules on the 1st day of the new session. Enough of the obstruction. Let's get reasonable people on the court. They don't even have to "liberal" for me, just not crazy and regressive as hell.

[babylonsister]

4. I am so with you; it's very scary to me, and most Americans

don't have a clue. That could be scariest of all.

[Tarheel_Dem]

6. Do we even teach Civics in high school anymore?

I don't know how you get through to people. The current court is going to be hearing cases like Affirmative Action, DOMA, the Voting Rights Act. All these things could disenfranchise millions of us. I wish we could do a better job at educating those casual voters who get "disillusioned" so easily. They need to know that it's important to show up.

[babylonsister]

7. This could be why the gop wants the masses dumbed down.

Oye. My head hurts. It's not like the info isn't out there if people were curious or concerned. But they're too busy to dig a little.

[Tx4obama]

5. K&R n/t