Jason Willick’s April 12 Tuesday Opinion column, “This high court battle was a GOP self-defeat,” misstated the historic nature of the Supreme Court’s current composition. He raised well-founded concerns regarding politicizing the Supreme Court but erroneously claimed we now have “the first solidly conservative Supreme Court majority in generations.” Republican-appointed justices have made up the majority of the court for the past two generations, since 1970 specifically.
In 1991, the Supreme Court had only one justice appointed by a Democratic president. In 1994 and 2009, it had two and then three, respectively. So, this past generation, the Republican-appointed majority has actually been decreasing, not increasing.
Though some current justices do seem more conservative jurisprudentially than their predecessors, “the path of law” is not always clear. The same 6-to-3 ratio of Republican- to Democratic-appointed justices of today established the one case Mr. Willick raised, Roe v. Wade. All but one Republican-appointed justice voted with Roe’s 7-to-2 majority in an opinion by Justice Harry Blackmun, a Republican appointee.
This demonstrates at least the historical folly of forecasting a “solidly conservative” Supreme Court’s rulings based merely on the political parties of the appointing presidents. Though admittedly it seems less likely with the present generation, such solids can evaporate.
Steven D. Reske, Minnetonka, Minn.
