What Next for the Supreme Court

With the resignation of Justice O'Connor, Bush will probably try to pick a staunch conservative in the mold of Scalia or Thomas but without much of a paper trail. There will be extensive fund raising efforts and media advertising from ideological pressure groups on the both sides opposing and promoting confirmation of the nominee. I think that they will make a careful choice and you will not see another Bork or Ginsberg scenario.As a generally pro-life Democrat, I am hoping that Roe v. Wade will be overturned. I would like to see abortion policy returned to the State Legislatures where it belongs. If Roe v. Wade is overturned though, the hard-line pro-lifers are likely to be disappointed. Many states may pass more restrictive abortion laws, but none will pass a law with no exceptions and most will continue to permit first trimester abortion. One great positive is that abortion will be eliminated as a major issue on the federal level. Democrats will benefit as more single issue voters were pro-life and working class voters return to the Democratic fold.While I am not losing sleep over the possibility of a very likely reversal of Roe v. Wade or a law and order stance on criminal justice issues by a more right leaning Court, it is a frightening possiblility that the new Justice could be a staunch economic libertarian who believes that labor laws and other forms of governmental regulation of economic activity are un-Constitutional. Justices Thomas and Scalia already have strong economic libertarian leanings and we could eventually with the prospect of other vacancies see a court that declares government programs that benefit the less fortunate and basic regulatory actions by government declared un-Consitutional (as the Supreme Court tried to do during the New Deal era). If that happens, we could enter an era of right-wing judicial activism that could attain what was impossible to acheive at the ballot box.As a rightist by Democratic standards, I would welcome many of the socially conservative decisions from a right leaning court relating to life, the family unit and the criminal justice system. I part company with the right when they advocate laissez faire capitalism, bash labor unions and eliminate the social safety net for workers. I hope that despite the cynical selection process geared to acheiving ideological goals that we find justices who not only have great intellect but compassion and practicality as well.