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Originally Posted by yys
As Kennedy votes so does the Court. Almost all decisions are 5-4 with Kennedy breaking the 4-4 tie. His role is very pronounced and he never strays too far left and never too far right; much like O'Connor.
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That was exactly my point. The Court is evenly split right now with one justice sitting in the middle deciding which way they come down. Which makes any future appointments (even just one seat) potential game changers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by yys
Interestingly there location relative to center is totally unrelated to who appointed them. Either Souter or Breyer were GHWBs appointee and they consistently vote left. Stephens was a Ford appointee and he's off the charts to the left.
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GHWB appointed Souter, and has been heavily criticized by conservatives for doing so. A year later he appointed Thomas, so I guess that made up for it.
Justices are appointed for life so you never know what the will do. But as a general proposition, Republican's get all excited over judges like Scalia, Thomas and Alito. McCain/Palin are more likely to appoint judges in that mold than Obama is.