Effects of Supreme Court Composition

Possible Effects of The Supreme Court Composition on Cases

This paper will discuss the effects of a change in the Supreme Court composition on various constitutional issues in controversial case law. The paper will be divided into sections according to the subject areas involved. These subjects are: (1) standing; (2) justiciability v. political questions; (3) federalism; (4) the Commerce Clause; (5) equal protection; (6) fundamental rights and due process; (7) the First Amendment; (8) the Establishment Clause; and (9) the Takings Clause.

The paper will attempt to deduce patterns in the cases described in order to predict how the cases would be decided by future justices. The patterns will be largely explained according to the political leanings of the justices. These political leanings will also be compared to the political party of the president who chose the justices. It will be noticed that there are anomalies in these patterns and that the political inclination of a president is frequently not a good measure of the political leaning of his Court nominees. Further, the political leanings of a president can be an even worse measure of how his nominee will vote in a particular case. It should be remembered that two of the most liberal justices in the history of the Court, Warren and Brennan, were appointed by a solidly Republican president, Eisenhower. In addition, two of the most recent Court liberals (or liberal moderates), Blackmun and Stevens, were appointed

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sely that there is little or no possibility that the motive for the classification was illegitimate racial prejudice or stereotype." Additionally, O'Connor said that the standard applied to federal government programs should be the same on applied to state programs. This had been undermined, according to O'Connor, by the holding in Metro, which had applied the less rigorous standard to the federal government and had based the application of this standard upon the race involved. O'Connor said that the same standard should be applied to all governmental actions, irrespective of the type of government or the race involved. What makes this opinion important in analyzing the trends of the Court is that it was authored by O'Connor, one of the moderates on the Court. It was quite naturally joined by Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas. Almost as important, it was joined by Justice Kennedy, also one of the recognized moderates. This may tend to indicate that future moderates will also take the same position on affirmative action cases. However, there also seems to be a division between conservative moderates and liberal moderates. For instance, Justice Souter, a Bush administration appointee, sided with the dissent on this case. Add

Category: Government - E