If you care about the policies that the presidential election winner will enact over the next four years, then surely you should care about the policies his Supreme Court justices will lock in for a generation. People For the American Way’s Romney Court campaign has been making sure that voters know that if Romney wins in November, the Supreme Court he would shape would regularly bend the law to unfairly favor powerful corporations over individuals, with a devastating impact on our basic rights for decades to come.
More and more Americans are recognizing the importance of the Court as an issue in November. While the broadcast network evening news shows don’t cover this issue much, other media sources are addressing it. For instance, under the headline "Why It Matters: One New Justice Could Change a Lot," the Associated Press writes:
With four justices in their seventies, odds are good that whoever is elected president in November will have a chance to fill at least one Supreme Court seat. The next justice could dramatically alter the direction of a court closely divided between conservatives and liberals. One new face on the bench could mean a sea change in how millions get health care, shape the rights of gay Americans and much more.
In "Election Likely To Tip Supreme Court Balance," the Hartford Courant writes:
As the country enters the home stretch for the 2012 presidential campaign, it is critical that voters focus on the impact of the election on the federal courts. We have some serious problems on our hands that should be part of the political conversation that will be in high gear from now until Election Day. First, the U.S. Supreme Court has fallen into a kind of stalemate, with many important cases turning on one-vote margins. …
We’ve also seen reporting from:
- NBC News (Conservatives Warily Ponder Prospect of an ‘Obama Court’)
- The Orange County Register (Chemerinsky Says Next Supreme Court Appointees Could Affect Personal Lives)
- Salon (Reelect Obama, Overturn Citizens United? Obama and Romney Presidencies Would Take the Supreme Court in Radically Different Directions)
- Bill Moyers and The Nation (The 1 Percent Court)
- Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift (Election Outcome Could Determine Supreme Court Makeup)
- Huffington Post (Great Reasons to Vote For Obama Whether You Like Him or Not)
- Talk News Radio Service (Poll: Obama Trusted Over Romney On High Court Appointments)
Certainly Mitt Romney’s supporters are showing that they are well aware of the stakes:
- USA Today: Gregg Nunziata, former chief Republican nominations counsel at the Senate Judiciary Committee (Presidential Election Will Shape Supreme Court)
- Forbes: Cheryl M. Stanton, former Special Assistant to the President and Associate White House Counsel during the Bush Administration (What Does Judicial Activism Mean For The 2012 Presidential Election?)
- Townhall.com: Chuck Norris (Election 2012: Supreme Court Hangs in the Balance)
- Committee for Justice: Curt Levey (Supremes: Retirements, Romney’s Picks & More)
- Breitbart.com: Ken Klukowski, Liberty University School of Law (Romney Aides Should Read Bush Aide’s Memoir on Supreme Court Appointments)
The presidential term lasts four years, but the justices nominated by November’s winner could shape our country for closer to 40 years. That’s worth talking about.