hedge wrote:"The Democratic hope is that she will get to appoint 5 judges during her tenure."
Five?? The only one that's going to matter is whoever replaces Scalia. That's going to be a pretty significant shift in the court if Hillary gets elected. Ginsburg will probably retire, but she's already liberal, so there's no gain there. Kennedy is 80, he's always been kind of a swing vote, but I guess if you would rather have a reliable liberal, that would be somewhat of a gain. Bryer is 78, but again, is considered pretty liberal (appointed by Bill Clinton), so no gain there. Next up would be Thomas, but he's only 68, which is about middle-aged by SCOTUS standards. Obviously if you replaced him with a lib, that would have huge ramifications, esp. with Scalia's seat already flipped, but I doubt he's going anywhere in the next 8 years, unless he dies. Alito and Roberts are both in their 60's and seem younger than that. They're not going anywhere. So basically there's really on 3 seats that are likely to come up (not counting Scalia's) and two of those are already in the liberal camp and the other one is nowhere near the hard right bloc on the court anyway. But still, replacing Scalia with a lib or even a moderate is already going to be a pretty significant shift...
Scalia - dead
Ginsberg - 83
Kennedy - 80
Breyer - 78
Thomas - 68, but Black men have the shortest life expectancy
Alito - 66
Sotomayor - 62
Roberts - 61
Kagan - 56
Assuming reasonable health, Sotomayor, Kagan & Roberts will all have 20 years.
Souter retired at age 70, Sandra Day O'Connor retired at 76, Scalia died at 79. In a 4-year term, she;ll probably have to deal with Ginsberg, Kennedy and Breyer, either due to retirement or death. In an 8 year term, it's not unreasonable to expect Thomas or Alito to ponder retirement.
Thomas has already served 25 years - if he retires, he'll still receive full salary, a paid clerk and paid office. If he serves 5 more years, at 73 he can clean up financially on the speaking circuit or take an endowed chair at a law school or university (and do even less work than he does now). He can even sit in on lower court cases as a judge (Sandra Day O'Connor has done it on occasion - even when retired they're still federal judges).
During a press conference later, O'Mara was asked if he had any advice for Zimmerman, and he answered, "Pay me."
