Free Republic

President Barack Obama has tried to hold off debate on contentious social issues such as abortion, immigration and gay rights as he focuses on the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Supreme Court vacancy will make that harder to do. Political battles over new justices tend to center on those types of social issues far more than on economic and foreign affairs, which have dominated the opening months of Obama's administration. Some liberals have criticized Obama for postponing efforts to revamp immigration laws, protect access to abortion and allow gays to serve openly in the military. The...

Many American presidents have been lawyers, but almost none have come to office with Barack Obama’s knowledge of the Supreme Court. Before he was 30, he was editing articles by eminent legal scholars on the court’s decisions. Later, as a law professor, he led students through landmark cases from Plessy v. Ferguson to Bush v. Gore. (He sometimes shared his own copies, marked with emphatic underlines and notes in bold, all-caps script.) Now Mr. Obama is preparing to select his first Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice David H. Souter. In interviews, former colleagues and students say they have...

AgapePress) - A prominent Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee is being called to task for reported comments he made that clearly indicate his prejudicial stance on the White House's pending nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court -- whoever that may be. Two pro-family groups are saying the only proper step for New York's Charles Schumer to take is to bow out of the confirmation process altogether. According to news reports, Senator Schumer was overheard on Wednesday (July 6) discussing "how we are going to go to war over [judicial nominations]." In addition, the senator has stated "It's not...

The great battle to select the next United States Supreme Court justice has begun. In my view, the president's candidate should be confirmed by the Senate, provided the president's party is in the majority and the candidate is of good character and professionally qualified. The positions of the candidate on hot-button issues, e.g., abortion, gay rights, the death penalty, the environment, etc., so long as those positions are within the mainstream of the president's party, should not bar the candidate from being confirmed. No one opposing the president's pick on key issues should be expected to support the candidate, but...

f President Bush chooses Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, that might well doom the GOP Senate incumbents, those on the religious right say, by infuriating the party's fervent, evangelical grassroots, Newsweek reports in the current issue. "If the president is foolish enough to nominate Al Gonzales, what he will find is a divided base that will take it out on candidates in 2006," says Manuel Miranda, who heads a coalition of conservative groups called Third Branch Conference. A former legal counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Miranda went on to threaten...

WASHINGTON, July 2 - Conservative groups confronted President Bush with a groundswell of opposition this weekend against nominating his attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, warning in private meetings and public statements that doing so would splinter conservative support. At least one prominent Latino evangelical group urged Mr. Bush to name another Hispanic candidate, Emilio M. Garza, a federal appeals judge from Texas. Within hours after Justice O'Connor's announced her retirement, members of conservative groups around the country convened in different combinations in five national conference calls in which many participants...

With the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, key Senate leaders are being urged to keep "anti-religious bigotry" out of the upcoming confirmation hearings. The Catholic-based group Fidelis issued a warning to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter and Ranking Member Patrick Leahy to "prevent this vile brand of hate politics from entering this important process." "We expect that the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings must follow nothing less than the three-fold high standard of being responsible, civil and constitutional," said Fidelis President Joseph Cella. "The statements by every senator -- Republican, Democrat or...