Obama and the Courts

Judges matter, and we're about to get a whole bunch of lefties:

Democrats and allied advocacy groups expect President-elect Barack Obama to put a progressive stamp on the federal judiciary, saying it has veered too far right under President Bush.

After capturing the White House and strengthening their grip on Congress, Democrats will turn to the third branch of government — and the only one firmly under strong conservative influence.

They claim that Obama, who discussed the role of the courts during his campaign, has received a strong mandate from voters to reshape the judiciary.

Given that judges came up only briefly during the last debate, and was not touched at all in the other debates or emphasized during the campaign, I'm not sure the voters really understood Obama's stance on judges, let alone knew enough to give him a mandate.

Moving on:

Kathryn Kolbert, president of People for the American Way, a group that has played a central role in past battles over court appointments, said: “The right wing has been very successful in stacking the courts with ideological appointments, people who vote their politics rather than the law.”

That's just laughable. When was the last time a conservative judge found a new "right" in the constitution? Liberal judges can find all kinds of new rights before they finish their morning coffee. It's all about politics with them. The law isn't important.

And this:

Many activists are looking ahead to as many as three Supreme Court justices possibly retiring during Obama’s first term.

Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 88 years old, is viewed as a likely candidate, as are Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has battled health problems in recent years, and David Souter, who is rumored to want to return to his home state of New Hampshire.

The loss of any of those three would not result in an ideological change on the court. They are the most liberal members of the court. In fact, it would be hard to find judges more liberal than they area.

The risk to the country in the resignation of any of these three is that an aging jurist would be replaced with a younger liberal who would be on the court for many more years.

There are lots of federal judicial seats currently open because the Senate would not process Bush's appointees. You can expect all of those seats to be filled as fast as the president and the Senate can ram them through. Mitch McConnell will have a difficult time stopping all but the most ardently liberal of them from being confirmed.