Luther, surely you cannot believe that? Have a look:

From NARAL:

The next President may have the opportunity to appoint enough Supreme Court Justices so that the Supreme Court overturns Roe/Casey. Whether this occurs depends on three factors. First, the next President must be given a chance to appoint a sufficient number of Justices, at least two, to overcome the current 6-3 split in favor of Roe/Casey. Second, because the President will likely only get two to three appointees, the purported President's appointees must replace existing pro-Roe/Casey Justices. Third, he or she must appoint and the Senate must confirm Justices who would overturn Roe/Casey. If an anti-choice President is elected, all three factors will possibly, if not likely, occur.

The next President will likely nominate two or three individuals who will serve as Supreme Court Justices. One-hundred and ten Justices have served on the United States Supreme Court (John Jay, the first Chief Justice, through Stephen Breyer, the most recent appointee). These 110 Justices have been appointed by 42 Presidents (George Washington through Bill Clinton), for an average of 2.62 Supreme Court Justice appointments per President. Moreover, since 1869 when the maximum number of Justices serving on the Supreme Court was fixed at its current level of 9 (hereinafter "modern times"), the average number of Supreme Court Justices per President is even higher: 70 Justices (William Strong through Stephen Breyer) have been appointed to the Court, and these Justices were appointed by 25 Presidents (Ulysses S. Grant through Bill Clinton), for an average of 2.80 Justices per President.2 Either two or three new anti-choice Justices are sufficient to guarantee Roe's demise if these Justices replace current pro-Roe/Casey Justices.

Given the age of the current membership of the Court, it seems likely that at least two of the next three Justices to leave the Court will be ones who support Roe or Casey. The current Court is comprised of three blocks of Justices. Each member of the first block, Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas, would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. Each member of the second block, O'Connor, Kennedy and Souter, would not vote to overturn Roe, but would continue applying the more restrictive undue burden standard they announced in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Each member of the third block, Stevens, Ginsburg and Breyer, would vote to uphold Roe. The following chart presents the three blocks in visual format:

(Sorry I cannot get the format of this right. I will post a link at the end, if anyone wants to go look at it. Thanks, kat)

Block 1 - Anti-Choice Justices Block 2 - Pro-Casey Justices Block 3 - Pro-Roe Justices Chief Justice Rehnquist Justice Scalia

Justice Thomas Justice O'Connor Justice Kennedy

Justice Souter Justice Stevens Justice Ginsburg

Justice Breyer

The current membership of the Court listed by age, as of January 2001, the beginning of the next President's term, as as follows:

Stevens - 80 (Born April 20, 1920)
Rehnquist-76 (Born October 1, 1924)
O'Connor-70 (Born March 26, 1930)
Ginsburg-67 (Born March 15, 1933)
Scalia-64 (Born March 11, 1936)
Kennedy-64 (Born July 23, 1936)
Breyer-62 (Born August 15, 1938)
Souter-61 (Born September 17, 1939)
Thomas-52 (Born June 23, 1948)

Thus, three of the four oldest members of the Court recognize that the Constitution protects the right to choose an abortion under either Roe or Casey. If only two of these three Justices left the Court (most likely Stevens and O'Connor) during the next Presidency, the outcome of the 2000 election could determine whether Roe survives. Furthermore, even if the three oldest Justices left, the next President could appoint three anti-choice Justices who would join with Scalia and Thomas to overturn Roe.

Finally, it seems likely that an anti-choice President would nominate Justices who would overturn Roe/Casey and that the anti-choice Senate would confirm their President's choice. The Senate is likely to remain in anti-choice hands for the foreseeable future. Currently, there are only 32 pro-choice members of the Senate, and pro-choice Senators such as Republican John Chafee of Rhode Island have announced that they will not seek reelection in 2000. Thus, pro-choice forces are not likely to retake the Senate in 2000 and will probably have difficulty overcoming their low numbers by 2002. Therefore, anti-choice Justices who would overturn Roe/Casey are likely to be nominated by an anti-choice President and confirmed by an anti-choice Senate.

The historical record demonstrates that it is accurate to say that the outcome of the next election may determine the fate of Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose.

NUMBER OF SUPREME COURT JUSTICES PER PRESIDENT WHO NOMINATED THEM
President Number of Supreme Court Justices
1. George Washington 11 (John Rutledge appointment to Chief Justice counted).
2. John Adams 3
3. Thomas Jefferson 3
4. James Madison 2
5. James Monroe 1
6. John Quincy Adams 6 (Catron nominated by Jackson, confirmed when Van Buren was President).
8. Martin Van Buren 2
9. William Harrison 0
10. John Tyler 1
11. James Polk 2
12. Zachary Taylor 0
13. Millard Fillmore 1
14. Franklin Pierce 1
15. James Buchanan 1
16. Abraham Lincoln 5
17. Andrew Johnson 0
18. Ulysses S. Grant 4
19. Rutherford B. Hayes 2
20. James Garfield 1
21. Chester Arthur 2
22. Grover Cleveland 2
23. Benjamin Harrison 4
24. Grover Cleveland 2
25. William McKinley 1
26. Theodore Roosevelt 3
27. William Taft 5 (Edward White promotion to Chief Justice not counted).
28. Woodrow Wilson 3
29. Warren Harding 4
30. Calvin Coolidge 1
31. Herbert Hoover 3 (Charles E. Hughes appointment to Chief Justice counted).
32. Franklin Roosevelt 8 (Harlan Stone promotion to Chief Justice not counted).
33. Harry Truman 4
34. Dwight Eisenhower 5
35. John Kennedy 2
36. Lyndon Johnson 2
37. Richard Nixon 4
38. Gerald Ford 1
39. Jimmy Carter 0
40. Ronald Reagan 3 (William Rehnquist promotion to Chief Justice not counted).
41. George Bush 2
42. Bill Clinton 2
Total 110
Average 2.62

1 Even after the 22nd Amendment, which limited a President to two terms, a President appoints on average 2.5 Justices. (Twenty-five justices divided by 10 Presidents).

2 Two Justices, John Rutledge and Charles E. Hughes, have been counted twice in the 110 total because they served as Associates Judges, resigned from the Court, and later both served as Chief Justice. Three other Justices have been Associate Justices before becoming Chief Justices: Edward White, Harlan F. Stone, and William Rehnquist. These three Justices were promoted to Chief Justice when they were Associate Justices, and therefore were only counted once because their appointments to Chief Justice did not change the fact that only one new Justice was appointed to the Court.

Here is that link: CLICK HERE