Thank You George

Ok, GW has not lived up to most conservatives’ expectations including mine, but today he certainly made a difference. Thank You President Bush for Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito. Today the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to strike down the District of Columbia's 32-year-old ban on handguns because of the individual gun rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment. This should have been a slam dunk since the Constitutional Amendment is quite clear to most of us but with Justice Kennedy’s recent rulings it became somewhat questionable (what was Reagan thinking?).

With Kennedy’s affinity for European law and his anointing foreigners with America citizen rights in the recent Boumediene vs. Bush case and then the decision favoring the brutal rapist in Kennedy vs. Louisiana , he seems to be losing touch with the Constitution. In addition to Kennedy, unfortunately Republicans gave us 2 of the 4 most liberal justices on the bench. Ford appointed Stevens and G.H.W. Bush gave us Souter but at least 41 made up for it the next year by appointing Clarence Thomas.

As a side note on bias, the CNN gallery of current justices points out that Scalia “worked actively to strike down Roe v. Wade” while Stevens “has championed the individual's right to have an abortion”. They also devote two paragraphs to the sexual harassment charges against Justice Thomas while not bringing up any negative comments on other justices.

What do think the outcome would have been today had Gore or Kerry been elected? Since Justice Stevens turned 88 this year and Ginsburg 75 and is in poor health, it would seem once again to be an extremely important presidential election. While I have doubts about McCain I have no doubt that Obama would appoint someone to the left of Ginsburg (if that is possible).

I’m Just Saying, it could certainly be worse.