"f Earl Warren’s Court could do so much in just eight years, the next decade could bring some very interesting times."

Hell, 8 years? Look at what they have done in ONE WEEK. It isn't going to take them 8 years to put this country back to the stone age.

Justices' "that believe in the rule of law."

I'm sorry. Was there something funny there?

The court will doubtlessly try to shift things to the right, but there are a couple important differences between the Roberts Court and the Warren Court.

The Warren Court was, in many ways, in step with the larger political mood, coming of age with Kennedy, expanding the rights revolution in step with the civil rights movement, really stepping it up after LBJ's landslide and the dawn of the Great Society. The Roberts Court, meanwhile, is getting rolling right when public sentiment is moving in the other direction. Unlike their predecessors, they're not going to have a conservative Congress making new conservative laws which, when challenged, afford the opportunity for new conservative legal decisions. To be sure, they might be able to make new precedents with run-of-the-mill reviews and in trying to knock back Democratic proposals of the future. But unlike the Warren Court, they won't be running in step with the White House and the Congress, and they won't have majorities cheering them on and encouraging them to be even bolder. And given Kennedy's reputation as someone who follows media reactions to the rulings, he just might flip this court back to a 5-4 liberal edge.

Also, the Warren Court was fairly stable. The reason 1961 is the starting point is not just because that's when Mapp v. Ohio was handed down, but because of the replacement of old-fashioned Frankfurter with JFK liberal Goldberg. Goldberg was replaced briefly by like-minded Abe Fortas, and the only other new justice appointed in that stretch was Thurgood Marshall, who only encouraged the liberal trend. God willing, Bush isn't likely to get another vacancy and, even if he does, he's got to face Democrats running the Senate confirmation process. (They could easily run out the clock, like the GOP did when Fortas resigned in 1968, which opened the door to Burger's appointment by Nixon a year later.) If the next president is a Democrat, you'll see a lot of retirements from the liberal wing and a lot of new, fresh blood on the liberal end. The Roberts bloc isn't getting bigger, and might be facing a rollback.

Wow, what a long comment. Sorry to blather.

Those in power have no need of rights. The sad truth is they use those "rights" to abuse power. I think this court is going to earn itself an amendment to the constitution. Jackasses.

Is anyone talking about this new price fixing decision? Seems HUGE to me.

B

And just think, we owe it all to Alito's wife outburst of crocodile weeping after being cued by Lindsey Graham. As a fellow Italian, I just want to say, may the evil eye look upon them the rest of their days.

The conservatives have been frothing for decades over the Warren Court. They thought he was one of them, but he proved to be an actual human beng, a fair judge, and an excellent Chief Justice for ALL the people.

They've been trying to undo the impact of the Warren Court over those decades. What they learned is that they didn't have the legislative clout. Thus began the strategy of taking over local governments, the airwaves and ultimately public opinion.

Mission Accomplished.

Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy all conspired to install Boy Wonder the Criminal as Preznit.

They EACH had recusement issues which should have barred their participation. NO ONE on the earth thinks that the decision could ever have gone in Gore's direction, were the parts reversed.

So they are going to have to be REMOVED from office.

Paul, I couldn't agree more.

Here you have a Supreme Court that created itself. And we laugh about how corrupt Mexico is . . .

The SCOTUS has had seven Republican appointees for decades now, and Ginsberg and Breyer were compromise candidates. The court is hardly liberal as a whole, and it's not as if many of their recent high profile decisions have followed the law or precedent. It's extremely important to get in a Democratic president and strengthen the Senate and House to get some true liberals on the court and allow Stevens to retire. The same goes for other judicial appointments, since the GOP has been stacking the deck for years now.

When the RATS are in charge, then they only need rat cheese---Kennedy---to accomplish their right-wing agenda. R=Roberts
A=Alito
T=Thomas
S=Scalia
Put 'em all together and what do they spell? RATS w/Kennedy as cheese.

This court has demonstrated that "precedents" are irrelevant. That means in two years, similar cases to the ones that have been losers over this past week can be submitted and the lawyers can argue that "precedents" can be overturned. Conservatives lack the ability to think strategically. They only think about the here and now and as a result, they shoot themselves in the foot.

Two of the weakest kinks in our democracy, are the FCC and the Supreme Court. The FCC is deeply involved in enabling fascist totalitarianism by virtue of its refusal to live up to its trusts and duties. Without a functioning, independent journalistic arm, a free society cannot endure. It will need to be restored to integrity.

The Supreme Court is also a corrupt organization. In decision after decision, using reasoning that most often sounds like shabby, inartfully cobbled-together rationalizations(worst offenders: Scalia and Thomas). The court used to defend Human Rights; now, at the hands of the current majority, it values only property rights - according to a hierarchy of whoever has the mosts enjoys the most rights. The Court used to uphold ideals; now it upholds narrow and evil ideologies. The Court used to defend the Constitution; now it enables the Its rapists. The Supreme Court used to be the last and best hope of the defenseless, downtrodden and oppressed; now it is usually the last nail in the coffin of hope. The Supreme Court used to be the champion of justice; under the current majority, it is a shabby brothel, an epicenter from which the diseases of injustice and shameful iniquity are originated and broadly spread. Under the current majority, the Supreme court has become an institution that demonstrates an almost infinite capacity to make me ashamed of my citizenship.

I think that the next president, almost certainly a Democrat, hopefully not a corporatist like all of the current frontrunners, can fix this court. The next President can lead a measure to petition Congress to exercise it's Constitutionally granted authority to determine the number of sitting justices. Congress can increase the number of sitting justices to such point that the vote and influence of the current majority is rendered irrelevent. Alternativly, the president can develop a case and a request to impeach certain justices (Roberts, Alito and Thomas) based upon perjured testimony during their confirmation hearings. The Founders foresaw the possibility of a corrupted Supreme Court and granted Congress the power to apply remedies. It's time to use these tools whose need the Founders so presciently anticipated. In last resort, using the powers that the majority has so eagerly rubber stamped of late in it's eagerness to enable totalitarian rule, the next president can make the majority an offer it can't refuse.

The first order of business of a rehabilitated court would have to be a review of all decisions rendered since Reagan's administration. All decisions which have betrayed principle, the Consitution and our higher ideals must be reversed. The lies, the dishonest rationales, the betrayals must all be explicitly refuted and painstakingly repudiated, creating a record to last the life of the nation.

As a check on future abuses, the next president can lead an initiative to join the International Criminal court.

If the Court is not restored to integrity, America is doomed.

Nicolle;

Earl Warren was appointed as Chief Justice in 1953 not 1961. Brown vs. Board of Ed. was decided in 1954. His term was from 1953 - 1969.

Wasn't Warren Berger appointed around 1961?

What everyone should watch is the REAL slight of hand here....

Yes, these Justices (and what a joke that is) will dismantle a lot of social progress, but some of that damage has already been done, for example, its virtually impossible to get an abortion in much of the deep south (unless you're rich that is).

What the REAL damage Roberts and Alito will do is dismantle ALL personal protection, and ALL labor rights laws in favor of some illusionary Free Market and a partriarchial Catholic like view of Government?

I.E. Every issue will go the way of the corporations, and while dismanteling things like the EPA and FDA in favor of the corporate bias, they will ALWAYS back Executive authority unflinchingly?

Unless, of course, it's a LIBERAL going against Corporate feilty, and there agian, they will back big business.

This court is LESS like the Pre-Warren Court, then the court that held sway in the early days of Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Absolutely PACKED with Corporate Thugs and "Traditionalists" they were simply there to reinforce existing power, and damp down any change against the ruling moneyed elite.

Yes, as someone said above, may Ralph Nader hide in a warehouse in NJ for the next year and a half...or Anyone pushing a third party challenge or a Republican of any stripe:

Cause, just as much as "Goe is just like Bush" was one of the most ludicrious statments made in the last 100 years, anyone that says something like

"Rudy or Bloomberg will be OK, they're socially liberal is missing the point."

This is not a culture war, it's a CLASS WAR, and the rich are stacking the deck permanently in their favor.

One more justice like Alito, or heaven help us, replace Ginburg AND Stevens with another Roberts, and....

I happen to think that things with the supreme court are gonna get a lot worse and that might just be the worst legacy of the Bush Reign.