Posted on 01/16/2006 5:03:13 PM PST by motife
Rush said several times last week that confirming Alito changes the balance of the court from 5-4 to 6-3.
Alito is replacing Sandra Day O'Connor one of the 5-4 majority. The balance is not changing.
We can only hope Stevens and/or Ginsberg retire in the next 2 and 1/2 years. I would not be surprised though that as partisan as they are, they will not.
Here are the ages of the current court, including Alito, how long they've served, and who appointed them :
Liberals :
John Paul Stevens, appointed by Gerald Ford, court term began 12/19/1975. Born Chicago, IL 4/20/1920. Confirmed by 99-0 vote. Probably most liberal member of the court. Particularly bitter opinion in Bush v. Gore. Aged 85. Has been on the court 30 years.
David Souter, appointed by George H.W. Bush, court term began 10/9/1990. Born Melrose, MA 9/17/1939. Confirmed by 90-9 vote. MOST disappointing choice for Republicans. Aged 66. Has been on the court 15 years.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, appointed by Clinton, court term began 8/10/1993. Born Brooklyn, NY 3/15/1933. Confirmed by 97-3 vote. Aged 72. Has been on the court 12 years.
Stephen Breyer, appointed by Clinton, court term began 8/2/1994. Born San Francisco, CA 8/15/1938. Confirmed by 87-9 vote. Aged 67. Has been on the court 11 years.
Conservatives :
Antonin Scalia, appointed by Reagan, court term began 9/26/1986. Born Trenton, NJ 3/11/1936. Without question the best Supreme Court Justice, among the best ever. Has started a multi-generational movement in law not unlike Reagan has in the GOP. One of Reagan's great legacies to the nation. Confirmed by 98-0 vote. Aged 69. Has been on the court 19 years.
Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Reagan, court term began 2/11/1988. Born Sacramento, CA 7/23/1936. Could have had Robert Bork who along with Scalia and Rehnquist would have made a epic court. Kennedy has been by and large a conservative vote, although not 100% reliable. Confirmed by 97-0 vote. Aged 69. Has been on the court 17 years.
Clarence Thomas, appointed by G.H.W. Bush, court term began 10/23/1991. Born near Savannah, GA 6/23/1948. Taciturn, but rock solid for the right. Confirmed by razor thin 52-48 vote. Aged 57. Has been on the court 14 years.
John Roberts, appointed by G.W. Bush, court term began 9/29/2005. Born Buffalo, NY 1/27/1955. Confirmed by 78-22 vote. Aged (next week) 51 years. Chief Justice.
Samuel Alito, appointed by G.W. Bush. Born, like Scalia, Trenton, NJ 4/1/1950. Appears like Roberts to be an excellent choice for the right and youthful for a justice. Aged 55.
To the contrary, I listen to him, or his sit-in substitute, every day as background in my office. I enjoy a perverse analog to the pleasure/pain principle of Freud as the self-promoted "Maja Rushie" goes about doing violence to epistemology and factual accuracy.
Anyone who has heard Justice Thomas speak, or read some of his opinions, knows that embarrassing himself is the last thing he would worry about. On a par with Scalia, Thomas is the most lucid thinker on the court. He doesn't ask questions because he understands the arguments implicitly and has no interest in what the advocates think about implications of a decision for which he, not they, will be responsible.
He was recommended by a local, Rudman or Sununu I forget which, to GHWB, who didn't care about conservative values. Bush I was a RINO, basically.
Souter was a wierd recluse who more or less lived in the attic, and nobody knew how he would vote on anything...but they couldn't find a hook to hang him on, so they let him go. So we got a mental case on the Supreme Court, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Roe was reaffirmed in Casey, a 5-4 squeaker.
After eight years as Ronald Reagan's VP, 41 ran on the slogan of wanting to make America a "kinder, gentler nation." He was a RINO pure and simple, a creature of the beltway hothouse.
Yes, he said it.
On balance, he tends to lean left on social issues, with one bright and shining exception: partial birth abortion. He penned a stinging denunciation of partial birth abortion in dissenting from the Breyer-authored majority opinion in Stenberg v. Carhart, which basically guaranteed that the grisly practice could be practiced with impunity in all 50 states.
Thank you.
He was not a RINO.
The Bush's a born and bred Republicans.
Committed to the Republican Party.
One day I'm going to make this a tagline, though more concise, since people keep misuing the title.
RINO= REPUBLICAN IN NAME ONLY
Bush 41 was not Chafee. He was not Bloomberg. He was not loyal to the PARTY in name only. RINO does not mean CONSERVATIVE In name only. The two are separate.
Rudy, Bush 41 or 43, Reagan, Pence, Romney, Allen..whatever their ideological leanings are NOT Republicans, devoted to Party, in name only.
Now was Bush 41 possibly a CINO? Conservative In Name Only? I'd say yes. He was a Northeast Republican that played conservative when it suited him in order to advance through the standings in the Party. In order to win his first election on Reagan's coattails. He'd vacilate on abortion and other matters dependant on how he perceived circumstances of the day. He wasn't a full fledged Liberal....but he was by no means a conservative. But he WAS, and IS, a Republican by birth. Just as my grandparents were Democrats by birth. They were raised so, bled FDR colors, as many from that generation did.
Justice Kennedy was against CFR. We now have five solid votes against CFR.
McC will be more of a crankypants than ever if this is overturned.
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