Charles M. Blow has quite an informative column on the importance of electing a President the upcoming Supreme Court nominations. Blow brings to our attention some discouraging statistics regarding the public’s view of the Supreme Court such as a third of all Americans think that a Supreme Court ruling can be appealed.
Blow then writes about the how the Court has pulled to the extreme right. Here is a cool chart he brings to our attention.
Blow concludes:
In his first term, Obama has appointed Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, two relatively liberal justices. Not only has Mitt Romney chosen Robert Bork, a rejected Supreme Court nominee, as one of the chairmen of his Justice Advisory Committee, he has made it clear that he will choose extremely conservative justices:
I would have favored justices like Roberts and Alito, Scalia and Thomas. I like justices that follow the Constitution, do not make law from the bench. I would have much rather had a justice of that nature.
There is little ambiguity here. Which of these two men will pick the next justice is of grave significance. This — like budgetary priorities and economic stewardship, concern for the earth and the air, and a candidate’s penchants for war and appetite for peace — should be on the lips of every pundit and in the minds of every concerned citizen.
We don’t get a do-over.