The Supreme Court Working With 8 Justices

TYLER – Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee say there will be no hearing for President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. That means, with the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the high court will have 8 justices hearing cases until sometime next year. Professor of political science at U-T Tyler, Eric Lopez, says having just 8 justices hearing cases won’t matter. He says where the controversy comes in are cases where the court splits 4 to 4. If that happens, the lower court opinion is affirmed without creating any Supreme Court or national precedent.

Lopez says, looking at the 8 justices on the high court, 4 are Republican appointments and 4 are Democratic appointments, with Justice Anthony Kennedy in the middle. He says its hard to predict what Kennedy will do on any given case. However Lopez says he “caucuses with the more conservative wing” many times, and this could lead to a lot of 4 to 4 decisions. To cut down on a lot of 4 to 4 decisions, Lopez says the justices could decide, on the big issues, to hear oral arguments and then kick it over to next year for re-argument when a 9th justice is on the bench.