My blogging on Bench Memos has been rather light of late, partly because the Supreme Court is out of session, partly because nothing is happening on the judicial-confirmation front, and partly because I’ve already written all that I think any voter needs to know about the different approaches that Barack Obama and John McCain would take to judicial appointments, including this Weekly Standard review of Obama’s record and rhetoric. As I’ve summed it up:
If you want justices who will invent a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, vote for Barack Obama.
If you want justices who favor partial-birth abortion and taxpayer funding of abortion, vote for Barack Obama.
If you want justices who will give foreign terrorists constitutional rights, vote for Barack Obama.
If you want justices who will strip God out of the Pledge of Allegiance and religion out of the public square, vote for Barack Obama.
If you want justices who will protect child pornographers and child rapists, vote for Barack Obama.
By contrast, Supreme Court picks by a President McCain hold out what great threats in the eyes of the Left? The prospect that abortion policy will finally be restored to the democratic processes, where the Constitution leaves it. The prospect that national security will be the province of the president and Congress. And, more generally, the prospect that the Court won’t, without a legitimate basis in the Constitution, be striking down legislative enactments by Congress and the states.
Over the next couple weeks or so, I plan to do a preliminary review of some of the folks being talked about as serious candidates for Supreme Court nominations by a President Obama.