When the U.S. Constitution was crafted, the architects of our democratic republic envisioned a 3-legged stool, one that would not wobble despite one leg being shorter or longer than the others. With three branches, there would be checks and balances, and the Supreme Court would be the final arbiter of law. When we speak of redress of grievances, the court is the petitioner's last best hope. It is not meant to be a partisan institution. Unfortunately, it can still be an ideological one, depending on its members.

Those ideologies often reflect of the president who appointed them. The current court has 5 judges appointed by Republicans and 4 by Democrats. As such, the court often rules in favor of conservative ideology, often to the benefit of business and to the detriment of the individual.

The most recent case illustrating this was the Wal-Mart sex-bias class action lawsuit. The court split along "party" lines, giving Wal-Mart the win. The rationale was that the "class" was too big. The reality is that the size of the class shows the depth of the problem, the entrenched "boys club" mentality of management at Wal-Mart. The problem is that these are not a set of individual cases of discrimination, and the conservative wing of the court failed to recognize that.

Along similar lines, the court has also decided that corporations have free speech rights in that money can do the speaking for them. This of course is the infamous "Citizens United" case. Since the law that was overturned was deemed unconstitutional, it will likely take a constitutional amendment to correct this.

The court has also decided that the standard of "if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided..." does not apply if you are jailed for failing to pay child support:

All of this goes to show that elections matter. In some cases, judges are elected to lower courts. For higher courts, they are appointed by elected officials. In both cases, it's important to elect people that care about the rights of the individual over what's best for Big Business. Last week, the state Supreme Court of Wisconsin upheld the anti-union law. One of the judges that voted in the majority squeaked in under suspicious circumstances. The state court of Indiana will likely be getting involved with a new law banning Medicaid from being used to fund Planned Parenthood.

Both of those cases show the importance of electing good people to the judgeships on a local level. How often, though, do we as voters randomly pick candidates in the voting booth (or not pick any)? It's important to do the research ahead of time and know the history of the people that will end up on the bench.

For the Supreme Court, this is especially important. The person occupying the Oval Office is the one who picks the Supreme Court nominees. They are rarely rejected or withdrawn, which is why it is so important who gets elected president. While many on the left may be disillusioned or disgusted with some of President Obama's actions (or lack of action), he has chosen wisely with his two picks thus far for the Supreme Court. It is imperative that he remain in office for a second term, in case another vacancy appears on the court (especially one of the more liberal judges). Considering that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 78, she could retire at any time. The court will remain after Obama leaves office; in that respect, his picks for the court will have a greater impact on life in these United States than any other action he takes as the head of the Executive Branch.

There is also the possibility that a conservative judge could step down, which would leave open the possibility of swinging the court the other direction. There is a distinct possibility that Clarence Thomas might be forced out, if the media and our elected officials are encouraged to bring light to his unethical behavior.

This requires that we as concerned citizens hold the feet of our elected officials and the media to the fire, and demand that action be taken. It requires us to support President Obama, research judges on our local ballots, and show up on election day. This is OUR government and OUR courts. If we don't tend to them, someone else will.