Posted on 09/22/2007 2:21:07 PM PDT by shrinkermd
...The last Supreme Court term, which ended in June, was the stormiest in recent memory, with more 5-to-4 decisions split along ideological lines than at any time in the court’s history. In a series of controversial cases about abortion, racial integration in schools, faith-based programs and the death penalty, the court’s four more conservative justices prevailed, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy providing the crucial fifth vote. The four more liberal justices were often moved to dissent in unusually personal and vehement terms.
“It is my firm conviction,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in the case striking down race-based enrollment policies in public schools, “that no Member of the Court that I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today’s decision.” According to the gossip among Supreme Court law clerks, the level of tension among the justices is higher than at any point since Bush v. Gore in 2000.
...Justice Stevens, the oldest and arguably most liberal justice, now finds himself the leader of the opposition. Vigorous and sharp at 87, he has served on the court for 32 years, approaching the record set by his predecessor, William O. Douglas, who served for 36. In criminal-law and death-penalty cases, Stevens has voted against the government and in favor of the individual more frequently than any other sitting justice. He files more dissents and separate opinions than any of his colleagues. He is the court’s most outspoken defender of the need for judicial oversight of executive power. And in recent years, he has written majority opinions in two of the most important cases ruling against the Bush administration’s treatment of suspected enemy combatants in the war on terror — an issue the court will revisit this term...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Expect more such puff pieces for Stevens as 2008 approaches.
I guess that’s what happens if the Constitution is more of a living document than not. Cuts both ways. Sorry.
The biggest shame in the entire senate is that fact that we were FINALLY on the road to a decent Supreme Court. 2008 looks horrible for Republicans in the Senate and that means our great ability to change the Supreme Court might be down the drain. I find that tragic.
Jerry Ford never felt apologetic for appointing this piece of leftist trash to the bench... not once (unlike Ike with the worst Chief Justice in history, Earl Warren). He might as well have been a Carter appointee.
Since most clerks only clerk for one term (a year), how would current clerks know what the tension was like then?
Stevens has been one of the most destructive influnces on the court in American history. He is overshadowed only by Earl Warren and Hugo Black as members who would allow the constitution to be intrepreted to the point of being an instrument of national suicide. Pornography, abortion, unlimited rights for criminals, unheard of POW rights, etc have been the hallmark of his votes.
If he leaves the court tomorrow, dead or alive, America would be a better place. Regardless of how he leaves, he has to go. He is neither distinguished or famous. He is just an extreme left wing lunatic who has worked to destroy the foundations of American civilization.
Bingo. And the “POW” rights are special rights for terrorist termites. Unf’ingbelievable.
“It is my firm conviction,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in the case striking down race-based enrollment policies in public schools, “that no Member of the Court that I joined in 1975 would have agreed with today’s decision.”
So what, John? It’s an evolving Constitution. No one would have agreed with Roe v. Wade in 1960, either. No one would have agreed with the sodomy decision when you joined the court either.
Fred will nominate judges to the right of Thomas .
You mean in line with Clarence Thomas?
He won’t be removed from the Judiciary Committee until he dies or retires.
I would be interested to see who that person is, I am unaware of ANY justice ever being more conservative than Thomas and that includes Rehnquist and Scalia.
The republicans were too busy attacking their own voting base. They decided to act if legislative control was their right and not subject to actually building and maintaining their voting block.
I have been shouted down before on this, Democrats have traditional bases that can be wooed without costing the republican coalition. Instead republicans went with big government uber alles, something libertarians despise. Tried to pass two massive amnesty packages, and called the law and order crowd a bunch of racists for not “getting with the program”.
I’d like to tell you that the republican party isn’t suffering from numerous self-inflicted gunshot wounds, that isn’t the case. The Dems are equally unliked, they didn’t go out of their way to tick off their base, and that is the margin of difference.
What about Ruth Buzzy?
Bottom line, conservatives from a Fred Thompson Administration.
You’ll get no argument from me there.
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