More court-watching

While political pundits are analyzing the races in the upcoming elections, legal pundits are projecting what the new makeup of the Supreme Court will mean this term.

The Supreme Court’s new term has cases on abortion, the environment and racial diversity in schools, some of the country’s most contentious social issues for a court primed to shift sharply to the right by President Bush’s conservative appointees.

The nation’s highest court, with Bush’s two appointees, could decide to limit or overturn recent precedents upholding abortion rights for women and programs to foster a racially diverse student body, legal experts said.

“The term is going to be a bellwether on the shift in the court’s ideology. The court is revisiting a series of profound issues,” said Tom Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who closely follows the court.

“With Justice (Sandra Day) O’Connor’s departure from the ideological center seat, there’s the prospect for a significant shift to the right,” he said of the term that begins Monday.

It’s going to be an interesting year between now and next summer.

“This has the potential for being a blockbuster term,” Duke University law professor Erwin Chemerinsky said. “Socially significant cases, legally significant cases, cases that affect the rights of large numbers of people — all of that is already present.”

Should be dramatic. Especially with a different court and different justice in the pivotol position.

The experts agreed on the emerging importance of moderate conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy as the key swing vote. In the high-profile cases, he could cast the decisive vote on the nine-member court with four liberals and four conservatives.

This is what I’ve been thinking since this court shaped up months ago. Keep your eye on Kennedy.