Boy,  the planets and stars line up for Obama, don't they?    After a mere hundred and two days in office,  B.O.  is going to get to pick a supreme court justice already!    He has the best luck politically in the world it seems.   Too bad I don't believe in luck.  ACK!

So what happened with the tradition of retiring during a term of a president of the same party that nominated you?   Souter was nominated by President George H.W. Bush,  a Republican.   Last time I checked B.O. is  still a Democrat.   

Oh,  I forgot.     Souter is a liberal.   They don't have to follow rules and deafeningly  not tradition.    After fooling the first President Bush and the Republicans in congress then,  into thinking he was a conservative.  Souter  joined the court and became a far left liberal  justice almost right away.    So retiring last year during the final months of George W. Bush's term wasn't going to happen.   Souter knew more then anyone,  that Bush II would nominate someone his dad  should have in 1989.    That mistake of the hidden liberal wasn't going to happen again. 

As in a great supreme court justice the United States really needs badly.   The justice we will not be getting this time around either.     B.O. will chose someone even further left then Souter if he can.    Conservatives will hate any choice he makes.   B.O. will chose someone young, most likely a minority or a woman (not  that is bad for the first three)  but also someone so liberal it will drive conservatives nuts for decades! 

This won't be B.O.'s only Supreme Court pick either.  Steven's is 88 so it isn't likely that he will outlive the Obama years even if he is kept to one term.      I could see Stevens and Ginsburg retiring  quickly in  late 2011 or early  2012 if things go really badly for Obama and its clear he is going to be a one termer.

Obama will get at least two picks minimum.   He has a good chance at a third and even maybe a fourth.     Souter is now the first,  Stevens will finally retire or simply pass away, so he is a likely choice for the second.    Ginsburg's health is poor so she could be the third, though she wants to continue to serve into her eighties.    Both are very liberal so they would want to be replaced by Obama.     So those retirements are more likely during the next couple of years.  

Replacing Souter,  Stevens and Ginsburg would keep the current "division"  in the court.   Obama will get one for one liberal replacements for liberal justices.   Bush only got to pick two justices,  replacing one conservative (Rehnquist) with another (Roberts),  and replacing a flaky "moderate" (Sandra Day O'Connor) with a more conservative (Alito).    Just two choices by Obama cancel out the very small gain of the Bush years.   

It could be really bad for the future of the court.   If Obama gets the chance to add new younger liberal judges the stalemate will continue for decades.  It will counter the younger conservatives on the present court.    The rest of the court is younger so any more retirements are unlikely.   Kennedy will continue to be the court flake,   as the resident "moderate" seems to vote with the liberals in the worst cases.    It would continue to give the worst justice a lot of power he shouldn't have. 

(Sidenote rant on "Moderates":    My opinion of justices like O'Connor and Kennedy are quite low.   Called "moderates" by the press and academia their voting is very unpredictable.    Though they sure vote wrong at the worst times it seems.    So they may as well be liberals since there really isn't such a thing as a "moderate".   Both were supposed to be conservatives when they entered office and were not.  They were both bad choices by Reagan when better candidates were sunk by liberals.  Pity   End rant).   

The only wild card would be a early retirement of Kennedy.    That would end the stalemate but turn the court liberal again.   The four conservative justices could hold out for a Republican president if they can if they need to retire early.    They are all younger so I don't worry about that much.    But if Obama gets all his picks,   cases like Roe v Wade are going to get really old.   That's the worst of a liberal court.   Many other things would be bad as well like using foreign countries court rulings for decisions  and such.   I was hoping that President Bush would have a chance at replacing Stevens but that didn't happen.     That would have been nice replacing a full liberal with a great conservative.

I hope Republicans in Congress fight as much as Democrats did with Bush's choices of Alito and Roberts.    Republicans  rubber-stamped Stephen Breyer and Ruth Ginsburg  knowing they were liberal, during the Clinton years,  and the Democrats didn't return the favor during the Bush years.    The worst radical far left individuals must be blocked.    Like everything else so far, the Obama administration will want to rush someone though fast.   The best thing Republicans can do is slow him down and expose his worst choices.    He will make a bad choice no matter, but if he has to withdraw someone it will cost him politically.

Democrats and liberals don't make the mistake of a wrong choice (in their book) with justices.   Republicans have had some bad choices happen.   Lawyers are liberal for the most part so they have many more choices to begin with.  They won't end up with a accidental conservative.    Conservatives don't  lie to get into office like liberals would,  so that makes the accidental conservative even less likely. 

Hopefully this will be the only choice B.O. gets to make.   The future of the country depends on it.   Obama has stated his preferences for justices and they are the wrong things for America. 

The Supreme Court can bring great justice to America and it can also bring greater injustice to it as well.    The twentieth century had far more bad choices then good ones,  we can hope for a better twenty-first.     Right now it doesn't look very good. 



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