Chief Justice Scalia?

[judith_s]

Rehnquist is dead. I won't miss him particularly, but I'm very frightened that his replacement may be worse. Chief Justice Scalia is almost a certainty. Thomas is too junior. Kennedy is too moderate, and of course the others are much too liberal. Unfortunately, the Chief Justice has a lot of power. He assigns the writing of the majority opinion. Scalia, while he is one of the most brilliant justices ever, has absolutely no concept of diplomacy or reasonableness. I expect a Supreme Court even more severely splintered in the future.

I worry for my country.

Comments

[turing.livejournal.com]

I've read commentary that predicts that Bush will switch Roberts' nomination to be for Chief Justice, and then nominate someone else (possibly even more conservative) for O'Connons' associate seat. Food for thought...

[judith-s.livejournal.com]

Unlikely, since there is some fear among the conservatives that he will turn out to be another Kennedy or O'Connor (i.e. somewhat balanced, instead of an extreme conservative). After all, the man assisted in a gay rights case pro bono once.

[turing.livejournal.com]

Looks like the gay rights pro bono work won't be preventing that. You know, if we were just talking about a one-for-one trade between Rehnquist and Roberts, I'd be okay with that. But that would presume that we'd have either O'Connor staying or a moderate replacement for her, which I suspect is highly unlikely.

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

**shudder** You and me both. The longer term ramifications of this are staggering