The American Spectator

Special Report

The Supreme Court in the Balance

By Peter Ferrara on 9.10.08 @ 12:08AM

The key to understanding the Presidential election this year is that the two candidates are diametrically opposed on almost every major issue. In probably no other election since the Civil War have the differences between the two candidates been so stark.

Barack Obama has proposed a record increase in government spending, running into trillions. John McCain has proposed the strictest spending reductions since Reagan. Obama has proposed to increase the marginal tax rates for almost every federal tax. McCain proposes marginal tax rate cuts. Obama proposes to increase taxes on savings and investment. McCain proposes to reduce them.

Sarah Palin challenged the corrupt political machine in her state, in her own party, and won. Barack Obama was part of the Chicago political machine, and ran and won with its support, rejecting requests from reformers in his own party to join in challenging the machine.

John McCain has an astounding record of service to his country. Barack Obama has an astounding record of service to his left-wing political ideology.

Barack Obama has promised that if elected he will support passage of federal legislation that will strike down all state restrictions on abortion. No more requirements for parental consent, or even parental notice. No more waiting periods for the mother to think over whether she really wants an abortion for her child. No more informed consent laws requiring that the mother be provided concrete information regarding abortion and its effects before deciding whether to go through with it. Obama would also reverse the ban on federal funding for abortions.

John McCain has said just the opposite, that he would be a pro-life President leading a pro-life Administration. Barack Obama has explained that if one of his daughters made a mistake and became pregnant, he "would not want to punish her with a baby." When Sarah Palin's 17-year-old daughter actually did become pregnant, Palin the promising young politician did not seek to hide the matter with a secret abortion. She announced that the daughter would be having the baby and marrying the father. For those who are pro-life, this could not be a more important election.

BUT NOWHERE ARE the differences between the candidates more stark than on the issue of judges.

The U.S. Supreme Court is currently split down the middle. It has four solidly conservative justices in Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, and Sam Alito. It has four solidly liberal left Justices in John Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, David Souter, and Stephen Breyer. In the middle is Justice Anthony Kennedy, who goes back and forth between liberal and conservative depending on the case.

Probably the most liberal two Justices on the Court will retire during the next presidential term, Stevens and Ginsburg. Justice Stevens is 88, and Justice Ginsburg (75) is not in good health. If they can be replaced by reasoned, principled justices like the most recently appointed Roberts and Alito, conservatives will finally have achieved what they have been fighting for since the Nixon era, transforming the liberal activist Supreme Court into a reasoned institution of law.

By contrast, if Obama is elected, he will not only be able to replace Ginsburg and Stevens with liberal/left clones. A majority of the current justices are over 70. If Obama serves two terms, he will be able to remake the Court into the most left-wing force for social destruction it has ever been.

McCain has said precisely that he would appoint Justices like Roberts and Alito. Obama has said explicitly he would never appoint justices like those two. He actually voted against the confirmation of Alito and Roberts. Obama has said instead that he would appoint justices like the ultraliberal, left-wing Ginsburg, who was formerly General Counsel of the ACLU, and like the consistently liberal David Souter. McCain said at the Saddleback Church debate he would not appoint justices like Ginsburg or Souter, or Stevens or Breyer for that matter.

Obama has publicly disparaged Clarence Thomas, who has had a far more distinguished legal career than Obama. McCain voted to confirm Thomas in a narrow, highly contested, Senate vote.

These differences could not be greater. This is the most important election for the Supreme Court ever. There will not be another crossroads for the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary like this in our lifetimes.

Indeed, not only the Supreme Court is at stake. The entire federal judiciary is on the line. If Obama becomes President, even for just one term, he will appoint not only two Supreme Court Justices, but hundreds of other federal judges as well. If Obama serves two terms, the federal courts will be filled with Obamaniacs replacing the retiring Reagan Bush judges.

CAN BARACK OBAMA possibly be the man you want making these appointments? Obama is a man of the left, swimming in a sea of far left extremism his whole life. Today he has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate, more liberal even than Ted Kennedy. In his own autobiography, Obama tells us how in his youth he identified with the works of Malcolm X. That radical black author argued that white people were devils doomed to violent retribution, and he damned the United States as an oppressive society run by a rich, white establishment. Malcolm X wrote, "No, I am not an American....I am not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag saluter, or a flag waver -- no, not I! I'm speaking to you as a victim of this American system....I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare."

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, John McCain, Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Abortion, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Africa, Socialism