If You're Going to Be a Single-Issue Voter, Make That Issue the Supreme Court

By: Professor Jessica Levinson
This is an excerpt from an op-ed Professor Levinson wrote for Pacific Standard

Justice Antonin Scalia's unexpected death has thrown the importance of the Supreme Court into focus. Amid all the partisan bickering and obstructionist, political posturing we should take a moment to talk about why the composition of the United States' highest-ranking court matters. Simply put, the people who sit in its nine chairs can have lasting power far beyond the man (or perhaps, someday, woman) who appoints them.

First, while presidents can hold office for a maximum for eight years, Supreme Court justices (along with all lower federal judges) hold lifetime appointments. Justices can—and often do—stay in office for decades.

Read the full article here.