The High Court Q&A Series
Alexander Heffner Editor-in-Chief
Following the completion of The High Court series, Scoop08 interviewed several additional legal observers for their assessment of the 2008 election's potential impact on the Supreme Court. Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief Alexander Heffner posed the following questions:
(1) What distinctions would you draw between possible Obama and Clinton Supreme Court nominees?
(2) Do you expect McCain to nominate Roberts/Alito strict constructionist models as he has promised the conservative base—or are there more centrist nominees he might consider who share his label as a "maverick?" If so, could you name any examples?
(3) Are the stakes of the 2008 presidential election higher for the future of liberal or conservative jurisprudence?
Linda Greenhouse
Supreme Court Correspondent, The New York Times
Author of "Becoming Justice Blackman: Harry Blackman's Supreme Court Journey"
Photo courtesy of Slate
(1) I would expect Obama and Clinton to draw from the same pool of potential Supreme Court nominees. If there are differences between them on this point, they have not been articulated.
(2) A Supreme Court nomination is almost always the function not only of the president's abstract desires, but of the relationship between the president and the Senate. So a President McCain might well be constrained by a strong Democratic majority in the Senate, no matter what he now says about his potential Supreme Court nominees. I can't name potential nominees for him, maverick or not, because I have no idea what he would be thinking about.
(3) With the ideological balance on the Court now hanging by a thread, I think the stakes are equally high for both ends of the spectrum. The most likely retirees in the next few years are "liberals" in the current lineup. So the justices who take their places will either tilt the court strongly to the right, or preserve the current narrow conservative majority without extending it into fully safe territory for conservatives.
Read the rest of Scoop08's High Court Q&A Series:
Part 1: The High Court Q&A Series
Part 2: Klarman: Obama, Clinton Justices Would Have High Legal Credentials
Part 3: Stakes Much Higher for Dems, Says Lazarus
Part 4: Zywicki: Will McCain Make a Campaign Finance Reform Litmus Test?
Part 5: Traditional Liberal, Conservative Labels Less Helpful, Says Purcell
Part 6: Tushnet: One Appointment Could Change Court Dramatically
Part 7: Court Will Stay Far to Right, Says Lessig