Obama and the Supreme Court

Barack Obama takes the oath of office today (!) and one of the most important legacies of his first term will likely be at least one Supreme Court nomination. (See this post for more of what we can expect from Obama on justice)

Thanks to George W. Bush's appointments of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, the Supreme Court has taken a sharp turn to the right in the last eight years. In a slew of 5-4 decisions, the court has limited the rights of individuals and criminal suspects and defendants while strengthening the government and corporations.

Obama is likely to have an appointment to make in the near future. Justice John Paul Stevens is 88 years old, and will step down soon. The new President said during a campaign debate that he will appoint "judges who have an outstanding judicial record, who have the intellect and who hopefully have a sense of what real-world folks are going through."

This understanding of reality is, to me, exactly what we need to see in our next justice. When women are being paid 40% less than men for the same job, we don't need to find legal minutiae to deny their claims, we need to fight for equality and justice in our country. When an attorney for a death row inmate misses a filing deadline, the Supreme Court should consider the imbalance of justice against the inmate and hear his claim - justice shouldn't be about deadlines and paperwork.

Judges who understand the Constitution and the intent of the framers to ensure fair justice for all people will change our country for the better, and Obama - a constitutional scholar himself - is the right man to pick the next one, two or three justices.