Scotus

[Fast_Eddie]

I was curious so I looked it up. Ages and leaning of the high court. I believe I have this right, though I'm sure the Justices themselves would object to being categorized in black and white terms.

On the right we have:

Kennedy 73
Roberts 55
Scalia 74
Thomas 61
Alito 60

Average age 64.6

On the left we have:

Stevens 89
Ginsburg 77
Breyer 71
Sotomayor 55

Average age 73

Of course with Stevens stepping down Obama will have an opportunity to replace him with a younger person of similar political make up. If, for instance, he replaces him with a person in their mid 50s it would take the left average age down to something very similar to the right.

Not that any of this means anything. Just interesting. For any change in balance to happen a more conservative judge would have to step down or die. Scalia and Kennedy being the oldest right leaning judges at 74 and 73. Seems like that lot live long lives, so they're relatively young.

I wonder if Ginsburg at 77 will look for an opportunity to get out while a Democrat is in office?

Anyhow, there you have it, for whatever it's worth.

[Zeke]

Thomas, Alito and Roberts.

UGH.

[merrylander]

You can add Scalia to that ugh.

[BlueStreak]

Or, maybe Kennedy and Scalia could retire (Or drop dead.) while Obama still has the Presidency?

Dave

[Zeke]

You can add Scalia to that ugh.

Concur.

I just went with the "young" pups that are likely to screw with my kid's Rights, too. :(

[d-ray657]

Concur.

I just went with the "young" pups that are likely to screw with my kid's Rights, too. :(

The Supreme Court has been the number one issue with me since 1980, until '88, when I realized that the lower courts can have tremendous effect as well. Sometimes, the outcome of a case depends on the judge drawn by random lot. Even though the different judges apply the law "accurately" most of the statutes and rules leave many decisions to the trial court's discretion, particularly evidentiary decisions, which makes it extremely difficult (not to mention costly) to prevail on appeal.

The potential effect on the composition of all of the courts is why I no longer cast protest votes when I thought the dems put up too conservative a candidate for president or senator. In '92 one of my colleagues asked me if I had voted & I told him I had voted for two Republicans - Clinton and the person the Democrats were running for the Senate. Senators from the presidential party generally get the courtesy of selecting judges for the federal trial courts. Therefore, even though Clinton and the Senate candidate supported some GOP programs, I figured the alternative would result in a worse judiciary.

Regards,

D-Ray

[merrylander]

After they annointed Dubya back in 2000 they ceased to be relevant as far as I am concerned.