Politicking and the Supreme Court

[Ragnar]

What gives? I thought Obama's re-election was in the bag. What's with the fear mongering worry wortness of all this then?


Is Justice Ginsburg Risking the Future of the Supreme Court? - The Daily Beast

A little more than a year ago, Harvard Law School Prof. Randall Kennedy sounded the alarm.

“Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer should soon retire,” Kennedy wrote in the pages of The New Republic. “That would be the responsible thing for them to do.”

If they didn’t, Kennedy warned, and “if Obama loses, they will have contributed to a disaster.”

Kennedy’s question once again seems relevant, even revelatory: most court watchers agree it’s now too late for Ginsburg—or Breyer, or any other justice—to give President Obama a third nomination to the high court before the election.

Kennedy’s hypothetical has taken on renewed significance, however, since Mitt Romney is currently polling close to or above President Obama in several key battleground states. If he were to unseat Obama this fall, and Ginsburg—a two-time cancer survivor who turns 80 next March—doesn’t feel she can continue through Romney’s first (or possibly second) term, should liberals fault her for potentially tilting the balance of the court for decades to come?

Interesting question in any case. Is it ethical for members of the SC to time their retirements for maximum political advantage? If not why not? Ethics aside, is it even practical to try and do so given the political battle that will take place in congress regardless of who is in office when they retire?



I'll hold my opinion until or unless there is anyone else with interest in the topic at this time.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

None of the Judges are apolitical. We have absolute proof from previous decisions that right and left apply with those judgements.

It is a personal matter for each Judge when they chose to retire and there is nothing inherently wrong with them making that decision based on who will get to replace them.

 

[Bigfoot]

This is exactly why it is so important for Romney to become our next president.