Future Supreme Court

[Jake]

The Supreme Court is something I don't know much about. Anyone who's heard rumors of who could retire or the general future please post and share the knowledge.

[Keystone Phil]

I know Sandra Day O'Connor was considering retirement and I believe there were maybe 2 others. Their names have slipped my mind.

[The Duke]

Old enough to retire
O'Connor
Rehnquist
Stevens

Disgruntled and might just walk away
Scalia
Thomas

[Jake]

Thanks

[qwerty]

Chief Justice Rehnquist has said he plans to retire in the near future.

[minionofmidas]

Chief Justice Rehnquist has said he plans to retire in the near future.

It was said before the 2000 elections that there'd likely be a number of vacancies during this term...nothing's happened yet!

[A18]

Just let them all die off and refuse to appoint anyone else. Thus forcing the country to actually READ the constitution for itself.

[specific_name]

Does anyone want the Supreme Court to be less political and more constitutional?

[Akno21]

Does anyone want the Supreme Court to be less political and more constitutional?

Sure, but how would it happen?

[raggage]

Does anyone want the Supreme Court to be less political and more constitutional?

Sure, but how would it happen?

If Supreme Court Justices were not political appointees, and were independant of partisan politics, as is the case in the U.K, Australia, New Zealand etc.

[Jake]

How are they appointed then?

[Dr. Cynic]

You should not belong to a Party if you want to be on the Supreme Court. Qualifications or Political Beliefs??? Hmmmmm.

[specific_name]

Does anyone want the Supreme Court to be less political and more constitutional?

Sure, but how would it happen?

Well it won't be easy to make them less political. Hopefully presidents will appoint people who don't legislate morality for others, we need strict interpretations of the constitution. Maybe there should be limits to how long a justice can be on the Supreme Court, 15-20 years maximum. I've been trying to think of other ways Justices could be appointed but I'm not familiar with any, if anyone knows that would be helpful.

[minionofmidas]

Does anyone want the Supreme Court to be less political and more constitutional?

Sure, but how would it happen?

Well it won't be easy to make them less political. Hopefully presidents will appoint people who don't legislate morality for others, we need strict interpretations of the constitution.

The American Justice system - and the British before it - depends on giving judges and juries quite a bit of leeway. I don't think it would be possible to have the Supreme Court behave much differently from all the other courts.
As Andrew Jackson, as a young judge, used to tell juries: "Do what is right between these two parties. That is what the law always means."
Plus, the US Constitution being so difficult to change and in parts so out of sync with actual American constitutional reality (almost a third of the document is dead letter, more than half of what I'd call American constitutional reality is not in it), I don't think the US would work for long if it suddenly had a strict constitutionalist Supreme Court.

[A18]

Roe vs. Wade will be overturned if Bush gets elected! He'll appoint justices who actually follow the Constitution, and as Democrats, we cannot allow this to happen.