Culture War and the Supreme Court
Landry Jorski
Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
The court ruled 5-4 in the case Burwell v. Hobby Lobby that family held private corporations can opt out of carrying some forms of birth control. Based on the religious view of the business owners of hobby lobby they believe that some forms of birth control can cause abortions which are against the owners religious perspectives.
United States v. Windsor
This case is a fight for the same sex marriage. The united states supreme court help the restricting U.S. federal interpretation of "spouse" to apply only to homosexuals. The defense of marriage act is unconstitutional under the clause of the 5th amendment. Windsor filed a lawsuit against the US government seeking a refund because DOMA singled out legally married same sex couples for "differential treatment compared to other similarity situated couples without justification."
Lee v. Weisman
US supreme court decision regarding school prayer. It was the first major school prayer case decided by Rehnquist court. It ruled that schools may not sponsor or conduct any kind of prayer in the school.
United States v. O'Brien
This was a decision by the supreme court that ruled that a criminal prohibition against burning a draft card did not violate the 1st amendment guarantee of free speech. It was considered that the law was justified by a significant government interest that was unrelated to the suppression of speech and was tailored towards the end.
Justice's
Ginsburg
Liberal court watchers have repeatedly called for Justice Ginsburg to step down and allow President Barack Obama to name his successor rather than leaving the position up to a possible Republican president after 2016. The 81-year-old judge has rebuffed any political pressure and maintained that she will hold her position until she feels she is no longer physically and mentally up to the challenge. If Obama is still president Ginsburg along with several others will not be happy.
Breyer
Breyer would resign in a second Obama term for essentially the same reasons as Ginsburg. Justice Breyer is five years younger than Justice Ginsburg. If he were to leave the Court, it would likely need to be 2014 at the age of seventy-five. I think Justice Breyer probably thinks he has seven to ten more years of service before retiring. This will instead be for his strategic decision about presidential and Senate politics. So if nothing changes, and so much can change between now and then,I would anticipate an announcement from Justice Ginsburg and Breyer on April 10, 2015 that she will retire upon the appointment of her successor.
Impact
The impact of the justice leaving could effect them a lot. They would have to fill there spot with someone even better then then and someone to support everything that they believe and think.