Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just died

[Moloch]

This leaves the US supreme court with 4 conservative vs 4 liberal justices...

The republican-majority congress will likely spend the next 10 months blocking whoever Obama nominates, hoping for a republican president who can nominate a conservative justice

[cooldgamer]

Typical Republican method, if you can't get things your way screw up the process as bad as you can until you have a chance.  Guess we may more or less have a useless court for a little bit.

[bryant.coleman]

This leaves the US supreme court with 4 conservative vs 4 liberal justices...

It is more like 3 conservatives vs 5 liberals, because I would rather classify Anthony Kennedy as a liberal. My classification is as follows:

Conservative:

1. John Roberts
2. Clarence Thomas
3. Samuel Alito

Liberal:

1. Anthony Kennedy
2. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
3. Stephen Breyer

Extreme-liberal:

1. Sonia Sotomayor
2. Elena Kagan

[Moloch]

Just tell me one thing...

Who do I need to blow to get nominated for the supreme court?

[TECSHARE]

What is less important is how they lean, what is more important is who appointed them and who they have their loyalties to. Their voting record tells even more.

104    Anthony Kennedy    Reagan
106    Clarence Thomas    Bush, G. H. W.
107    Ruth Bader Ginsburg    Clinton
108    Stephen Breyer     Clinton
109    John G. Roberts†       Bush, G. W.
110    Samuel Alito            Bush, G. W.
111    Sonia Sotomayor    Obama
112    Elena Kagan          Obama

This will mean if Obama gets his way he will have put in place 1/3 of the entire supreme court.

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/supreme-court.html

[bryant.coleman]

What is less important is how they lean, what is more important is who appointed them and who they have their loyalties to. Their voting record tells even more.

That doesn't mean anything. Loyalties can be bought in the United States. For example, although Anthony Kennedy was nominated to the SCOTUS by Reagan, he has increasingly sided with Ginsberg and the rest of the pro-LGBT brigade. Perhaps he thought that siding with the Liberals will give him better career prospects. 

[TECSHARE]

What is less important is how they lean, what is more important is who appointed them and who they have their loyalties to. Their voting record tells even more.

That doesn't mean anything. Loyalties can be bought in the United States. For example, although Anthony Kennedy was nominated to the SCOTUS by Reagan, he has increasingly sided with Ginsberg and the rest of the pro-LGBT brigade. Perhaps he thought that siding with the Liberals will give him better career prospects. 

By the standards of your own argument this would clearly demonstrate who bought them by examining the pattern of their rulings, so in fact it does mean something.