Liberty and Justice?

Sorry for the lack of posting of late — I’ve been sick for the past week, and it’s not getting any better. Nothing dramatic, just a variation on the infamous “Coughlan cough,” but irritating as hell.

Still, I wanted to take a moment to point out — to anyone who would seek to minimize the importance of next Tuesday’s election — the ongoing saga of Mr. Rehnquist. This particular case may turn out to be relatively insignificant — though I tend to think that a tracheotomy certainly leans toward the serious side of things — but it’s emblematic of a particularly disturbing trend.

Our Supreme Court justices are getting pretty damned old. Sure, the absolute youngest — Clarence Thomas — is just fifty-four, a veritable spring chicken. Otherwise, they’re all over sixty-five, our usual benchmark for “retirement age.” At the extreme end of the spectrum, John Paul Stevens is eighty-four. Between (arch-conservative) Thomas and (left-leaning) Stevens, which do you think is more likely to step down?

This is the most important election of our lifetime. The next president will determine whether America becomes a nation in which our courts actually enforce the Constitution, or one in which the judiciary joins the executive and legislative branches as just another puppet of the right-wing police state.

Where would you rather live?