WASHINGTON — Conservative legal activists view Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito as remarkable successes in President Bush’s quest to move the court to the right, and that is part of the reason that, as the court begins its work anew today, public attention is focused less on the cases at hand than on the court’s future.
It is a future entirely dependent on whether Republican Sen. John McCain or Democratic Sen. Barack Obama prevails in November.
Obama, supported by a strongly Democratic Senate, could be presented with three openings during his first term, said Walter Dellinger, a prolific Supreme Court practitioner who was acting solicitor general in the Clinton administration.
He said it is likely that Justices John Paul Stevens, 88; Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75; and David Souter, 69, would step down in the next four years if Obama were elected.
Although replacing liberals Stevens, Ginsburg and Souter with similar-minded justices would infuse the left wing of the court with younger leadership, it would leave the basic balance intact.
Replacing one of the liberal justices with a consistent conservative such as Roberts or 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.
