Politico is running an article suggesting that some folks might be more aware of the stakes involved in the President’s power to appoint new Supreme Court justices heading into the next election:
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito may well become the bogeymen of 2008.
Their decisions in the last term on abortion, school desegregation and pay equity angered pillars of the Democratic constituency, already prompting Senate campaigns and issue advocates to invoke the Supreme Court in fundraising pitches and attacks on Republican incumbents.[...]
Five of the nine justices will be at least 70 by Election Day 2008, including three of the court’s most liberal members.
Neither side disputes the prize: The next president could continue President Bush’s efforts to solidify a conservative majority, or reverse it altogether.
A few of us tried to make noise in 2000 and 2004 over how the results of the presidential election could influence the law of the land for years to come. Alito and Roberts have, in their time on the Court, certainly proven to be interesting in that regard.
Perhaps the reminders I and others will make in 2008 will fall on more receptive ears this time around.