Potential Supreme Court selections factor in election

With up to three U.S. Supreme Court justices expected to retire during the next president’s first term, this year’s election could be important in shaping the next era of court decisions.

Supreme Court justices are appointed by the president for unlimited terms. The current court is often closely split on issues, with many decisions being made in a 5-4 vote.

But with three of the court’s more left-leaning justices rumored to be considering retirement, the next president could tip that balance.

“In this election, the courts are an essential, core issue,” said Frank Ravitch, an MSU adjunct law professor and Supreme Court expert. “There’s a lot at stake, whichever side you’re on.”

Justice John Paul Stevens, 88, is expected to step down during the next presidential term. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who is 75 years old and has experienced health issues, also has been rumored to be considering retirement, as has 69-year-old Justice David Hackett Souter.

Depending on which candidate takes office, the future of several high-profile Supreme Court decisions could be in jeopardy, Ravitch said.

Among those are decisions regarding gun control, privacy laws, the writ of habeas corpus, state versus federal power and abortion.

Brent Colburn, a spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign in Michigan, said the next class of justices also will affect lower-profile issues.

“Certainly, hot-button issues get a lot of attention, but people should keep in mind that anywhere the law impacts your life could impact you,” he said. “(Justices’) fingers really reach into every aspect of our lives.”

President George W. Bush appointed two judges during his tenure: Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. Ravitch called them “judicial activists” who often overturn previous court rulings, don’t follow precedent and are viewed as loyalists to a political philosophy.

During a May statement at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., Republican presidential candidate John McCain said judicial activism is a problem in the federal courts, but he said Democrats are the activists. He said Roberts and Alito were strong choices and attempts by Democratic senators, including Obama, to block their acceptance were examples of activism. McCain spokeswoman Sarah Lenti was contacted for this article, but referred to McCain’s statements at Wake Forest.

During recent campaign stops in Michigan, Obama told supporters that a McCain-appointed court could eventually overturn Roe v. Wade. Ravitch said that is a possibility if McCain follows Bush’s lead.

“If he wins, he owes the religious right, and they care about judicial appointments more than anything else,” he said.

If he is elected, McCain said he will limit judicial power to keep judges from deciding issues that are better left in the Legislature. Roberts and Alito “would serve as the model” for his Supreme Court picks, McCain said.

But if that is the case, Souter and Ginsberg might hold out for one more presidential term, Ravitch said.

“If it looks like (McCain) is supporting Bush-type judges to repay the right, I think they’d have to pull them off life support,” he said.