New Singer For The Supremes?

September 2, 2009 at 9:06 pm

There is really not much doubt which the most powerful country in the world is, and there’s not much doubt who are the most powerful people in it: the US Supreme Court. Split ideologically down the middle between liberal justices who believe that they are there to make the law and conservative judges who believe they are there to uphold the law, a nomination to replace one of the lifetime appointments is a way for a President to leave a legacy lasting much longer than their term in the White House.

Fresh from appointing a legal lightweight with peculiar views on the benefits of “wise latino” thinking over what the law actually says, it seems that the Obamessiah might get another bite at the cherry. 

So is there another Supreme Court fight brewing in the US? Justice Stevens may retire next year, if the Associated Press is reading the tea leaves correctly. Stevens has hired only one law clerk. Most justices hire four, and Stevens has almost always hired all of his clerks by June or July.

In response to a question from The Associated Press, Stevens confirmed through a court spokeswoman Tuesday that he has hired only one clerk for the term that begins in October 2010. He is among several justices who typically have hired all four clerks for the following year by now. Information about this advance hiring is not released by the court but is regularly published by some legal blogs.
Stevens did not say whether he plans to hire his full allotment of clerks or whether he will leave the court at the conclusion of the term that begins next month. Retired justices are allowed to hire one clerk.

As with the Souter replacement, Obama wouldn’t really have a chance to change the ideological makeup of the court, since Stevens is a reliably liberal vote. But he would potentially be able to replace the court’s oldest justice with the court’s youngest.

This is interesting to us in the UK for two reasons…the decisions made by this court impact US policy across the whole world including those affecting us, and also because it may be a sign of things to come here. With the formalisation of a UK Supreme Court (which we had in all but name anyway) and in other areas of politics too, we are moving towards nominations based on ideology by confirmation panels. Watch the process carefully, because it’ll be coming soon to a country near you.