The Balance of the Court

The retirement of Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor presented President Bush with the opportunity to tip the balance of the court toward the right. The President nominated John Roberts, who appears to at least be right of O'Connor, and hopefully will prove to be a conservative in the Rehnquist/Scalia/Thomas image. Of course, past experience shows that we can't be sure of what we're getting, but the fact that The National Organization for Women, the People For the American Way, and scores of other radical left-wing groups oppose Roberts is a good sign.

The passing of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, however, changes the whole situation. Assuming that Roberts is confirmed, he will now replace Rehnquist as Chief Justice, and all that will have been accomplished is that a proven conservative justice will have been replaced by what we hope will be an equally conservative justice. That still leaves the court with a liberal balance, in spite of what democrats would like us to think.

The President now has the opportunity to truly leave his mark upon the court and upon the nation by nominating a true conservative to replace O'Connor. The Left will put tremendous pressure on Bush to nominate a moderate, claiming that a moderate would balance Roberts' nomination. In truth, a moderate nominated for this second opening would only mean that the status quo has been maintained, something that would please liberals immensely, but would disregard the conservative base that elected Bush into office.

Nominating a conservative for this second Supreme Court vacancy would almost certainly kindle a confirmation battle much greater than the one we're going to see over the Roberts' nomination. That's fine. The conservative majority in this country is ready for the battle. The President has not backed down from a battle yet. Let's pray that he does the right thing, stays loyal to his base, and nominates another conservative for the Supreme Court.