I think this post, Thoughts on this Term and the Next, on the SCOTUS blog by Tom Goldstein (June 29, 2009) is really interesting. I’ll only give two brief snips. First, one about when the court might shift back to the left:
… It isn’t until the election of 2016 at the earliest that there is a real prospect for a significant shift to the left in the Court’s ideology. Actuarially, that election is likely to decide which President appoints the successors to Justices Scalia and Kennedy (both on the right, and both 73 now) and Justice Breyer (on the left, and 70 now). Absent an unfortunate turn of health, between now and the summer of 2017 there is no realistic prospect that the Court will turn back to the left. Over the course of that eight years, it is possible to take enough measured steps to the right to walk a marathon. Again, no need to rush.
Scalia gone! Finally! I get all excited just thinking about it.
This paragraph, near the end of Goldstein’s post has me in a bind:
… Justice Thomas, in particular, remained willing to front new theories on critical questions, often writing only for himself, as in NAMUDNO. No other member of the Court is so independent in his thinking. The irony of course is that there remains a public perception, rooted in ignorance, that he is the handmaiden of other conservative Justices, particularly Justice Scalia. I disagree profoundly with Justice Thomas’s views on many questions, but if you believe that Supreme Court decisionmaking should be a contest of ideas rather than power, so that the measure of a Justice’s greatness is his contribution of new and thoughtful perspectives that enlarge the debate, then Justice Thomas is now our greatest Justice.
Thomas? Gag, choke, spit! … but you all should know how much I believe that “decisionmaking should be a contest of ideas rather than power.” Does that include the ideas of complete idiots?
Read the full piece if you have time. It’s long, but well-written and very thought-provoking. [ link] I also recommend daily reading of the SCOTUS blog when the court is in session.
-Julie
The USA has far more interesting political acronyms than we have:
There was a young lady called Lotus
Who had an affair with the POTUS.
But it all had to stop
When exposed by the GOP,
Who were jealous and whined to the SCOTUS.
Comment by Ray Girvan — July 4, 2009 @ 2:46 pm
We‘ve got our POTUSes
and we‘ve got our SCOTUSes
But you’ve got Miss Molly Trefusis
Comment by unrealnature — July 4, 2009 @ 4:00 pm