May 4, 2009

David Souter will soon be gone as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. He will be replaced by another liberal, probably much younger than Souter’s sixty-nine years. There will be no ideological change on the court, but Souter represents a golden opportunity missed when president George H. W. bush – a non-ideological man – listened to his chief of staff, John Sununu, and named Souter to the bench. Souter has been a disaster on ever issue conservatives care about. You name it and Souter has been to the left of everyone except, perhaps, Patrick Leahy.

President Obama’s choice to succeed Souter will sail through because of the overwhelming Democrat majority in the Senate. He won’t have to worry about his selection switching sides. Liberals never do that. Only supposed conservatives do, like Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy, both Reagan appointees who voted to uphold Roe vs. Wade.

Elections matter and if Obama gets to replace a conservative justice with a liberal one, you can count on 30-40 years of liberal rulings that will change our constitution in ways we will not recognize.

Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.