A president’s lasting legacy

That would be his appointments to the Supreme Court.

Iraq remains chaotic and immigration overhaul faces an uncertain fate.

But if President Bush wants to sing the old tune, “They can’t take that away from me” he can turn to the Supreme Court where his appointees Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito sit.

As the high court nears the end of its 2006-2007 term, the impact of Bush’s appointees is becoming clearer.

This is the most important reason to elect a particular president, for his or her power to appoint justices to the powerful and culture-shaping Supreme Court.

Former Reagan administration Justice Department official Doug Kmiec, who is professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University, said, “The headline of the term so far” is that “Anthony Kennedy in the presence of John Roberts and Sam Alito has rejoined the Reagan judicial philosophy.”…

“Justice Kennedy and the chief justice are thinking along similar lines,” Kmiec said. “I don’t think that’s an accident. I believe it is a conscious result of the respect the new Chief Justice has given Justice Kennedy and the simple fact that they like each other.”

It seems to be a more civil court, on which intellectual honesty and pure reason prevail.

“The biggest effect of the Roberts and Alito for O’Connor and Rehnquist swap has been to make Justice Kennedy, rather than Justice O’Connor, the swing vote that decides most of the big, contentious issues before the Court,” said Curt Levey, the executive director of the Committee for Justice, a group which supported the Roberts and Alito nominations…

“By far, the most dramatic example of that difference is the partial-birth abortion decision, where Kennedy voted to uphold what O’Connor would have very likely struck down,” said Levey.

And that decision alone is staggering.

Keep this in mind during all the election speeches.