TW: I have been posting on this topic (see links below). WaPo has good article outlining how the next POTUS is so crucial for the makeup of the SCOTUS.
From WaPo:
" 'A President Obama or a President McCain will likely be handed an opportunity to affect the makeup of the Supreme Court that is unprecedented in our history,' said Wendy Long, chief counsel for the Judicial Confirmation Network, which was active in generating public support for the confirmations of Roberts and Alito.
He said it likely that Justices John Paul Stevens, 88, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75, and David H. Souter, 69, would step down in the next four years if Obama were elected...The court is roughly balanced on important constitutional issues, with four consistent conservatives, four liberals and, in the middle, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who leans right on many issues but often joins liberals on some of the court's most controversial decisions...Replacing liberals Stevens, Ginsburg and Souter with similar-minded justices would infuse the left wing of the court with younger leadership but leave the basic balance intact...'What you really want to do in reshaping the court is change the median justice...That changes a lot more votes in the long run than just exchanging one liberal for another or one conservative for another.'
Replacing one of the liberal justices with a consistent conservative such as Roberts and Alito -- the two McCain has said would serve as models for his picks -- could have far-reaching consequences on issues such as abortion, church-state separation, racial preferences and executive privilege."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/05/AR2008100502175.html?hpid=topnews
earlier blog post
http://treylaura.blogspot.com/2008/10/supreme-court-follow-up.html
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