If you take a few minutes and examine the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Kelo vs. New London case you will find that by a 5-4 decision, the court found that a public entity could allow the power of eminent domain to be used to benefit a private party. The decision was made upholding the actions of New London because the taking would be made pursuant to a "carefully considered development plan". Even though the taken land will not be open to public use "the court long ago rejected any literal requirement that the condemned property be put into use for the public".
This decision is fortuitous for the Bush administration for this simple reason. At a time when Supreme Court nominations are seemingly going to come in a bunch, the court has handed the administration a simple bread and butter issue that every American can understand. The essence of this decision is that any private entity under the guise of a better use for your property can have government take your property and give it to someone else more powerful than you. How long will it be before familial government connections, big campaign contributors, and other favored groups utilize this very broad interpretation of the Fifth Amendment to their benefit and our disadvantage? Taking private property for the benefit of the public by a public entity is one thing, taking it for private gain is altogether another.
A skilled politician like Bush should be able to exploit this outrage in appointing a new justice to the court along with a few other levers available to him in the coming days. Those other items might be a woman, African American, or Hispanic nominee and strangely enough the filibuster.
The gang of fourteen moderate senate compromisers have put into place an agreement that prevents the use of the filibuster and defines cooperation on Bush nominees to anyone other than "extraordinary" cases. In the senate one person's main streamer can be another's extremist however in this case the agreement has identified the people who will be determining the definition. Theoretically, if the appointment meets with the approval of the 7 Democratic compromisers then cloture could be invoked and debate stopped in any filibuster attempt.
Although Senator Kennedy and Senator Schumer have been making threats on the subject it is very unlikely that President Bush will do much consulting with either one since anyone short of the re-incarnation of Thurgood Marshall or Earl Warren will be unacceptable to them.
Selecting a conservative woman or minority or indeed a female minority appointment is likely to put a lot of pressure on the Democrats and the special interest groups who are likely to be in the vanguard of opposition to a Bush appointment. Can't you just envision the hypocrisy of the NAACP and NOW organizing to prevent the appointment of an African American woman to the court?
One thing is for sure is that President Bush recognizes the importance of this appointment and you can be sure he is not going to allow this nominee to be "Borked". Stay tuned; it will be interesting to see how this issue affects the comity of the senate clubhouse.
