When the music stops--will the seat still be empty? The justices and decisions of the US Supreme Court.

• Author: Saade, Renea I.
• Position: Legal Speak

Without any doubt, the cases recently heard by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) and scheduled to be heard this year are some of the most controversial and politically charged. SCOTUS has heard or has agreed to hear cases involving: the constitutionality of considering race in college admissions, the constitutionality of state-imposed restrictions on abortion, whether state employees who choose not to join a union can still be required to pay a share of union dues to cover contract negotiations and other benefits, whether the President of the United States can defer the deportation of unauthorized immigrants, and the conflict between claims of religious freedom and women's access to contraception.

With the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the status and outcome of these cases are unnervingly uncertain because Justice Scalia was commonly regarded as the "swing vote" that determined the outcome of cases divided between the "conservative" and "liberal" members of the Court. Many legal commentators and scholars expect that if the remaining eight justices were to vote on many of the cases currently pending before the Court, it would result in a four-to-four tie. When there is a tie, the opinion of the lower court stands for the state or federal circuit that was affected and there is no change in law for that jurisdiction or the rest of the country. In other words, unless and until a new justice is appointed, the law on these controversial legal issues will likely not change and the Court's time spent to date, and in the future, could very well be for naught.

History of Supreme Court

SCOTUS was established in 1789 pursuant to Article III of the US Constitution. For a case to be heard before SCOTUS, one or more of the following conditions must be met: (1) diversity of citizenship among the parties to the case (parties are citizens of different states or countries and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000); (2) the case involves a question or issue of federal law (arises under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States); and/ or (3) one of the parties is the US government (or agency, including the US Post Office). The Court is usually composed of a Chief Justice (currently John Roberts) and eight Associate Justices who were nominated by the President, vetted by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and confirmed by a vote of the entire Senate. Although there are multiple steps to the appointment process, since 1975...