Since 1978, Tennesseans have gone back and forth in electing governors for two consecutive terms from first the Republican and then the Democrat parties. Whoever is governor when there is a state Supreme Court justice opening appoints the new justice. It’s the same way for the president of the United States and a United States Supreme Court justice.
If the governor, or the president, is a Republican, he appoints more conservative justices. If the governor, or the president, is a Democrat, she appoints more liberal judges. Although the Founding Fathers probably couldn’t foresee today’s hyper-partisanship, it’s the system they set up.
Today, Tennessee state Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and several hyper-conservative groups would like all that to change. For all intents and purposes, they’d like a court which, as Ramsey said in an interview, “thinks like me.”
The problem with Supreme Court justices is, even if they’re appointed by a president (or governor) of the same party, they don’t always think like the president or governor who appoints them.
Take the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision, for instance. Of the seven justices who voted that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th amendment extended to a woman’s decision to have an abortion, five were appointed by Republicans.