Beyond the Dome

Normally, the future of the Supreme Court isn’t one of the top two or three issues that are at the front of voters’ minds in presidential elections. This year, though, it’s striking how the John McCain and Barack Obama campaigns are both trying to draw attention to the court, each convinced they can make its future a real rallying cry.

McCain tried it this morning, in a speech to the National Sheriffs’ Association. The speech was full of pledges to help law enforcement in various ways, but McCain also touched on last week’s Supreme Court ruling that child rapists can’t get the death penalty. He called it a “jarring decision,” and gave Obama credit for criticizing it. But McCain also insisted that more of these kinds of rulings would be on the way if Obama got to nominate the next Supreme Court justices:

“Why is it that the majority includes the same justices he usually holds out as the models for future nominations? My opponent may not care for this particular decision, but it was exactly the kind of opinion we could expect from an Obama Court.

“Should I be elected president, I will look for accomplished men and women with a proven record of excellence in the law, and a proven commitment to judicial restraint. They will be the kind of judges who believe in giving everyone in a criminal court their due: justice for the guilty and the innocent, compassion for the victims, and respect for the men and women of law enforcement.”

It’s a clear sign that McCain thinks there are still plenty of socially conservative voters to be mobilized, Democratic year or not.

Obama’s supporters, meanwhile, are equally convinced they can head off any defections of women voters to McCain by reminding them that the next president can nominate justices who could actually tip the balance against Roe v. Wade. That was a big part of the discussion last week when Obama met with House Democratic women.

“They’d say, just make sure you talk about three words: the Supreme Court,” said Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean, one of Obama’s Illinois colleagues. “When they get that, it’s over for him.”

If this kind of back-and-forth continues to develop in the coming months, voters on both sides might have an unusually strong sense of why the Supreme Court matters in the choice they’re about to make.