My Ultra-Con Supreme Court

There will be two major consequences of the Bush administration that will be felt throughout the nation for many, many, years, decades, and generations. The first and most obvious is the Iraq war. As the death and injury tolls rise and rise more and more folks back home suffer the consequences and many more unborn and as yet unwitting folks come closer to feeling the effects. Perhaps a better way to think about the casualties in terms of numbers is to multiply each death by 4 or 5. This produces a number sparked by the death toll somewhere in the 14,000-18,000 number. These are the families, the spouses and children, the parents and siblings. Broken families create a myriad of problems children grow up without fathers, mothers fall into depression over the loss of their child, guilt, anxiety, nightmares, etc. And what about those who come back changed, PTSD and other mental and physical problems. What fate do their people face. Think of the children forced to grow up in a home with an Iraq vet suffering from PTSD, substance abuse and poor veteran's benefits. How many generational cycles of abuse will begin or amplify as a result of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan for the matter?

The role the war in Iraq will play n our future is terrifying but a more dangerous if less obvious problem is the Supreme Court. There was a concerted effort made in 2000 and 2004 to try to call attention to the fact that the President appoints Justices to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court in many ways is the most powerful branch of the government. Well, with the decisions recently handed down we see what will become a depressing trend. Votes of 5-4 on issues from campaign finance, th First Amendment, abortion, and on-on are going to be with us for some time. Lets look at the composition of the court.

The conservatives on the Supreme Court have resumes fitting Republican administration officials, which is perhaps not surprising since some of them have been in Republican Presidential administrations.

The current Chief Justice, John Roberts is only 52 years old, the life time appointments given to Justices makes him a relatively young man. This guy is likely to be on the court for 20 years. From 1981 - 1986 Roberts worked in the Reagan administration.

Justice Alito is 57, also young by Supreme Court standards. From 1981-1987 Alito served in the Reagan administration as well.

Justice Clarence Thomas is 59 and served in the Reagan and Bush administrations from 1981-1990.

Justice Saclia, relatively middle aged at 71 served time in the Ford administration and was appointed to the Court by Reagan.

These four make up the solidly conservative block of the court and, get this, they are all ROMAN CATHOLIC!

Justice Kennedy, often referred to as the swing voter is also Roman Catholic and therefore, isn't much of a swinger. He does have a little more of a libertarian streak in him which accounts for some of his swinging away from the Ultra-cons.

The liberals and moderates are between the ages of 67 and 87.

The decisions of the Supreme Court can sometimes be rendered irrelevant by legislative action ranging from Constitutional Amendments to simple law creation. It will always, however, be easier for 9 judges to hand down opinions on important topics than it will be for hundreds of mostly dirty politicians to really get things done. SO, what's the answer, just to wait I guess. Just to wait like within anything else. Try not to get in the way. Hope things will change. I don't know. Have a beer. There's no movement.