From http://www.electoral-vote.com/
One issue that has been totally absent from the campaign is the Supreme Court. The median age of the justices is 71. No spring chickens here except for Clarence Thomas, a mere stripling at 56. Here are the current justices.
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Breyer | Ginsburg | Kennedy | O’Connor | Rehnquist | Scalia | Souter | Stevens | Thomas |
Justice | Appointed by | Sworn in | Age |
Stephen Breyer | Clinton | 1994 | 66 |
Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Clinton | 1993 | 71 |
Anthony M. Kennedy | Ford | 1975 | 68 |
Sandra Day O’Connor | Reagan | 1981 | 74 |
William H. Rehnquist | Nixon | 1972 | 80 |
Antonin Scalia | Reagan | 1986 | 68 |
David H. Souter | Bush | 1990 | 65 |
John Paul Stevens | Ford | 1975 | 84 |
Clarence Thomas | Bush | 1990 | 56 |
It is very likely than multiple vacancies will occur on the Court in the next four years. The court will undoubtedly have to rule on cases involving abortion, the Patriot Act, and other divisive issues. If you are an undecided voter, think carefully about which candidate would make better appointments to the Supreme Court. Furthermore, a president makes far more appointment to the appellate courts than to the Supreme Court, and they hear far more cases per year. If you approve of the appointments Bush has made to the appellate courts, surely you want to give him the chance to make more. If you don’t approve, maybe somebody else should be doing the appointing. The next president’s appointments could shape the country for decades to come. It is at least worth discussing. If you have a blog, this topic might even be worth blogging about.