The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court Justices

According to article in the New York Times, The Supreme Court made their latest campaign finance decision. The five judges appointed by the Republicans voted for the RNC, Republican National Committee. The four judges that were appointed by the Democrats disagreed with this. The judges created a 5-to-4 split which showed that they were partisan. The Supreme Court is divided because of political parties and this reflects the partisan polarization in the Congress, electorate and with the Justices. The eventual retirement of Justice Kennedy, a Republican, will move the court to be either Republican dominant or Democrat because right now Kennedy is the ideological center. The changes that have created a partisan split are due to the fact that the President cares more about the ideology, they became better at finding nominees who will vote according to their ideology, and party affiliation has now become the way people’s views and decisions can be predicted. Candidates now have to go through extensive vetting and grooming. Also they are often affiliated with either conservative or liberal lawyer networks instead of the neutral bar associations. The people who work with the justices also add to the partisan behavior. When hiring their 4 recent law students they now consider not only grades and recommendations but political marker. This increases the partisan polarization.

The Supreme Court Justices are partisan. Since the president appoints them, they have been known to pick justices that share their ideology. The article also talks about how vetting, extensively looking into their lives, now includes whether they will vote conservatively or liberally. It also mentioned that Justice David Souter was the last to be appointed that was an exception to this pattern. The political ideology affects the ruling in many cases. The conservatives won 10 of the case, such as the decision that struck down the core service of the Voting Rights Act. The liberals won 6 cases, such as the ruling that made a requirement for the federal government to give benefits to same-sex couples.