When Obama won back in November, he won based on a campaign of changing the status quo and moving the country in a different direction. And with talk of Obama being close to selecting his nominee to replace Justice Souter, Obama can not only just change the direction of the country in the Executive Branch, but also for the next generation or two if he acts boldly (and frankly, in line with much of America anyway, as my good friend thereisnospoon pointed out the other day) by selecting an unapologetic and true liberal to the Supreme Court.
And while there was already talk of whether republicans would try to filibuster and that Obama has "assured that he wouldn’t nominate a bomb-thrower", that doesn’t mean that a strong liberal voice should be excluded from consideration. Interestingly, this was quite alright when hardcore rightists like Alito and Roberts were nominated by Bush under threat of blowing up the entire Senate (funny how the term "bomb thrower" was tossed around when the republicans talked about the nookyouluhr opshun if they didn’t get their way)....
Frankly, I don’t care whether Souter is considered a "moderate" – he was nominated by a republican President, as 6 of the 8 other Justices were. Elections have consequences, and we are stuck with Roberts and Alito as a result. Ideally, it would be a gay woman minority with an impeccable liberal track record, but it looks like Obama will probably get to nominate one or two (or maybe even three) more Justices over the next 4-8 years, and the direction of the country is most certainly moving in the leftward direction.
Change means reversing the angry reactionary right wing ideology that has failed and permeates the lower courts from being packed by republicans over the years anyway. Change means having a strong liberal voice on the Supreme Court. Or two. Or three. Change means aligning the Judicial Branch with the views of Americans. Change means not being afraid to do what is right for America. Change means restoring a view on the Supreme Court that the Bill of Rights and Constitution matter – something that has embarrassingly been lacking since Bush v. Gore.
Obama has everything on his side – an overwhelming electoral mandate, a very high approval rating, agreement by a large margin on issues when it comes to "left or right" and trust. He has already been bold with the budget, foreign policy (to a degree) and a number of domestic issues. This is not a time to stop continuing the bold decisions.
The Supreme Court is one place that has been dominated in recent history by right wing ideology, and the last two appointments by George W. Bush have cemented the extreme end of that ideology for up to another 20 years. It is time to push back and counter that extreme ideology with a liberal ideology that won’t bend to party politics (like Bush v. Gore or Scalia’s close relationship with Cheney) or ignore the Constitution on free speech or privacy matters. An ideology that works for the better of American families and not corporations or political cronies.
That would represent change that I can truly believe in.