WASHINGTON — Social conservatives like Gary Bauer and liberal advocates like Ralph Neas have found something to agree on this year. Both say the most important issue to be decided in the upcoming presidential election is not Iraq or the economy, but the future of the Supreme Court.
Their view was driven home forcefully by Monday's news that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, has thyroid cancer.
It has been a decade since a justice stepped down -- the longest period of stability since the early 1800s -- and now eight of the nine justices have passed the traditional retirement age of 65.
Some, including Rehnquist, are getting old even by the standards of the Supreme Court. Justice John Paul Stevens, the senior liberal, who has survived prostate cancer, will be 85 in the spring.
The prospect that one or more justices will step down in the next four years fires up -- and also frightens -- conservative and liberal activists.
The court's future is "an incredibly important issue. There is a values clash in this country, and unfortunately, the courts have become an ever greater factor in making decisions on these profound issues," said Bauer, chairman of the conservative Campaign for Working Families.
Whereas Bauer worries that a stridently liberal court will authorize same-sex marriages nationwide, Neas says he fears a radical right-wing court led by Justices Antonin Scalia, 68, and Clarence Thomas, 56, will roll back civil rights, workers' rights and environmental protection laws.
"If you get a Scalia-Thomas majority, hundreds of precedents will be overturned, not just Roe vs. Wade," says Neas, president of People for the American Way, referring to the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
The high court has the final word on the laws affecting broad areas of American life, including religion, freedom of speech, abortion, the death penalty, civil rights and private property. And other charged issues, such as gay rights and gun rights, are likely to be confronted by the justices in the years ahead.
Even if Rehnquist leaves, it is not certain there will be other court vacancies during the next presidential term.
Stevens, the oldest justice, remains vigorous and may well serve another four years. All but Thomas are active in questioning lawyers during the court's public arguments.
Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, 74, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 71, both have had bouts with cancer, but have never hinted that they planned to retire any time soon.
