The Federal Judiciary. The branch of government that is the overseer of the other two branches. The branch of government that interprets the key to our democracy--The Constitution and the law of this land.
This is the branch that determined separate but equal schooling for black children was wrong. This is the branch that determined selling contraception was legal. This is the branch that stopped the recounting of ballots in Florida and declared Bush the winner. Imagine a country where some of these issues were decided differently: Where school prayer was still mandatory, where a right to privacy didn't exist, where Al Gore was elected president. Some of the most important decisions of this country do not get made in the Congress or the White House, they get made in the Federal courthouse.
This is why we must take back the White House in 2008. We must reverse the trend of right-wing ideologue judges that are causing the depreciation of our constitutional democracy. Already Bush has appointed close to 30% of the federal judges currently serving on the bench, judges like Janice Rogers Brown of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Because the Dems won the Senate back in 2006, thankfully they stopped several more of Bush's appointments getting on the bench. But just holding the Senate is not enough. We must win the presidency so that we are the ones appointing and fighting for qualified judges, not the ones that have to constantly repeal unqualified ideologues.
And at the top of the federal judiciary, of course, is the Supreme Court. Already Bush has put two of his men on the Court, Roberts and Alito. While determining their exact judicial temperament will take time, we can be sure that they are more Scalia than they are Stevens. I think I speak for everybody when I say two Bush appointments to the Supreme Court is enough. Hopefully if we get no more open seats in the next two years, here is how old the justices will be in January 2009, oldest to youngest:
John Paul Stevens-88
Ruth Bader Ginsburg-75
Antonin Scalia-72
Anthony Kennedy-72
Steven Breyer-70
David Souter-69
Clarence Thomas-60
Samuel Alito-58
John Roberts-53
While there is some youth on the Court (I can't believe Thomas will only be 60), there will be 5 justices 70 or older when the next president is elected. The average ago of retirement for Justices since 1971 is 79 years old. This means we can expect at least one vacancy in the first term of the next president, possibility up to 4 in the next 8 years. With the Court as divided as it is, we cannot allow for anymore Scalias or Thomases on the Court. This is the most important duty a president has, because the people he/she picks will be interpreting our nation's law for the next 30+ years. We must win in 2008 to take the Constitution back from the right-wing ideologues and put it back into the sensible progressive jurisprudence where it belongs.