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 Editorials | January 2005 
Four More Fears!
 PVNN
As he starts another four years in the White House, Bush will have the chance to tilt the supreme court firmly to the right and leave a lasting imprint on the US's social and political fabric.
 Three of the nine supreme court justices could well step down in the next few years. Chief justice William Rehnquist, an 80-year-old Nixon appointee, who was hospitalised last year following complications arising from thyroid cancer, is surely looking at retirement. Justices John Paul Stevens, 84, and Sandra Day O'Connor, 74, have also indicated an interest in stepping down.
Unlike presidents, supreme court justices are not hobbled by term limits and can stay on for decades. The president who appoints them is therefore presented with an opportunity to shape the powerful body according to his political tastes - with the caveat that such judges can often confound expectations.
We can expect big battles in Congress as Democrats seek to block Mr Bush from packing the court with conservative judges. The president has made it clear what kind of judges he wants in the court, holding up as models two of the court's most conservative members, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
In the coming years, the supreme court is expected to consider some of the most divisive social issues in the US: private property rights and government land seizure, gay marriage and partial-birth abortion.
The importance of the court cannot be underestimated. It was the supreme court that segregated American schools and then reversed the judgment. It was the supreme court that made the famous Roe v Wade ruling that confirmed a woman's right to an abortion. The amendment has long been a bugbear for the religious right, which may well seek to overturn the ruling once Bush has made his appointments. |
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