United States Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court gets surprisingly little attention unless there is a high profile case to be decided or a new justice to be appointed. That is probably the way the country's founding fathers intended the system to work. However, in today's media saturated society, I think we tend to ignore just how much influence the court has on our laws. Politicians can sometimes be hard to categorize as to if they are liberal or conservative in their views. Sure there are a few extremist on either side who you can depend on, but more and more congressmen and senators tend to stake out a position somewhere near the middle.

That cannot be said for the supreme court. The justices tend to be pretty predictable in how they will vote. The New York Times just ran an article on that very topic and the impact having a new justice, probably Sonia Sotomayor, is likely to have on the court's future rulings.

Justices are appointed for life.

Current Supreme Court Justices and which president appointed them.

John Roberts (Chief Justice) George W Bush

John Paul Stevens Gerald Ford

Antonin Scalia Ronald Reagan

Anthony Kennedy Ronald Reagan

Clarence Thomas George HW Bush

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Bill Clinton

Steven G. Breyer Bill Clinton

Samuel A. Alito George W Bush