Postscript 285take conservative stances on many issues: Chief Justice John Roberts and Jus-
tice Samuel Alito. There are already two other recognised conservatives on
the Court, Justice Antonin Scalia (nominated by Ronald Reagan) and Justice
Clarence Thomas (nominated by George H.W. Bush). There are four Justices
currently on the Court who tend to take a more liberal stand: Justices John
Paul Stevens (Ford), David Souter (Bush Sr), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Clin-
ton), and Stephen Breyer (Clinton). The ninth member of the Court, Justice
Anthony Kennedy, appointed by President Reagan, has come to be seen as
the ‘swing vote’ on the Court, throwing decisions either to the conservative
wing or to the liberal wing. The Court is therefore nicely balanced, but new
appointments could tip the balance one way or another. Justice Stevens is 86
years old. If President Bush has the opportunity to appoint another Justice
before his term of office ends in January 2009, there could be a conservative
majority on the Court; this might have implications for cases on abortion and
on civil rights. As the Democrats won a majority in the Senate in the election
of 2006, albeit a very slim one, the President’s room for manoeuvre will be
severely limited. If a Democrat were to be elected to the presidency in 2008,
the opportunity for the nomination of new liberal members would open up.
However, it should be emphasized that Supreme Court Justices do not simply
toe the party line, and no president can be sure that the Justices he or she
nominates will vote the way expected of them.
The basic characteristics of the American political system remain. Party
realignments change its mode of working but not its fundamentals. Individual
politicians come and go, political groupings rise and fall; under the pressure
of events decisions are taken which otherwise would be unacceptable. In the
early years of the twenty-first century it is likely that the decisive events will
be those that occur in the Middle East, or in Asia; the reactions of American
policy-makers to these events will shape both foreign and domestic policies.
It is to be hoped that the traditional values of the American polity, sometimes
lost sight of, will be reasserted.