Next High Court Retirees Likely to Be Liberal
The U.S. Supreme Court is “a major, looming issue in the 2008 presidential election,” Tony Mauro writes in an opinion column for USA Today.
Many observers believe the first justices to announce their retirement will be from the court’s liberal wing: 87-year-old John Paul Stevens, 74-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and 68-year-old David H. Souter.
Mauro writes that voters should consider their views on the court when casting a vote for president.
“In the coming months, for example, the court might recast the future of the death penalty, the fundamental rights of Guantanamo detainees, the definition of child pornography, and the meaning of the much-disputed right to ‘keep and bear arms’ under the Second Amendment,” Mauro says. “Each hot-button issue arises in a case directly affecting only one or a few people. But the impact on voters, on all of us, could be enormous.”
