Posted: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 12:00 am
Last week's ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have a constitutional right to challenge their detentions
before a federal judge should serve notice that we've reached the end game for Guantanamo.
The ruling was the third judicial setback for the Bush administration over the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. And both major-party presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, have called for closing the detention center. It's been a continued black mark on the reputation of a country that prides itself on being a nation of laws. It's time to move forward.
The ruling also is a timely reminder of an issue that should loom large in this year's presidential election: What sort of judges would McCain or Obama appoint to the Supreme Court?
It's almost a certainty that the next president will get the chance to appoint one, and possibly more, judges to the high court. The average age of the justices now is 68. The oldest justice, John Paul Stevens, is 88. Three other justices are in their 70s and two other justices will reach their 70s during the first term of the next president.
But even if the next president makes just one appointment, even one new justice could swing the court in a new direction for generations. Last week's decision, for example, came on a 5-4 decision. And Jeffrey Toobin's excellent book on the court, "The Nine," outlines how abortion has long been the touchstone of the culture surrounding the court and how just one vote could affirm or undermine that longstanding ruling on abortion rights.
So it's important that we pay attention to how the next president would try to shape the high court. Which justices, past or present, do the candidates admire and why? Which court decisions do they believe have enriched the country and which have been mistakes? What do the candidates believe is the proper role for the judiciary? We need to get answers to these questions - and voters should ponder how the answers before they mark their ballots.
The influence of an appointment to the Supreme Court can be among a president's longest-lasting accomplishments. Current Chief Justice John Roberts, for example, easily could serve another quarter-century. Let's be sure we have a detailed picture of how our presidential aspirants would try to leave their mark on the court.