O'Connor's retirement

[novapsyche]

No one on my friends list seems to think that this is a good thing.

We all knew that vacancies were going to open up on the court. Rehnquist will be going soon, too.

These are the political realities we have to face. (And I mean this only insofar as the Court is part of our government, and our government has been overtly political as of late. Though I do believe the Court politicized itself during Bush v. Gore.)

Comments

[kali-ma.livejournal.com]

The thing is, if Rehnquist had left, and a conservative had been put in his place that would have been - business as usual.
But now it seems as though that will happen AND O'Connor, the voice of moderation and reason, will be replaced by a neo-conservative as well. The court has had so many split decisions lately... The appointment of a neo-con in O'Connor's place will pretty much solidly tip all their decisions in GW's favor. Both houses of the Congress are also Republican dominated. It's one big happy one-party government. That always spells trouble for the people.

[chai-tease.livejournal.com]

exactly. i was prepared for one uber-conservative to be appointed, but now we are very likely to have TWO. this bothers me greatly.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I knew, and other liberals/feminists knew, that the vote last year was really a vote for who gets to install what justices on the Supreme Court. There were speculations of up to four vacancies in the ensuing four years.

The battle was joined the night the returns came in.