The Supreme Court, usually an also-ran as a presidential election issue, got some significant attention at the Rev. Rick Warren’s televised Saddleback Civil Forum on Saturday night. In successive interviews on stage at Warren’s Saddleback Church in California, Warren asked both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain the same questions. His way of getting at the Supreme Court was an interesting one, asking not whom the candidates would appoint to the high court, but rather, which of the current justices they would not have appointed.
Obama’s unhesitating answer was Justice Clarence Thomas, saying he was not “a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time.” Obama also mentioned Justices Antonin Scalia and John Roberts Jr., praising their intellect but adding that he did not agree with their constitutional views. Roberts, Obama said, was too quick to favor expansion of executive power, which Obama said concerned him even if he becomes a president who could benefit from the expansion.
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