To the Point

Naming the Next Supreme Court Justice

Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been hospitalized with thyroid cancer, dramatizing the essential fact of political history that no presidential act lasts longer than a judicial appointment. Eighty year-old Rehnquist was appointed by Richard Nixon, Justice John Paul Stevens by Gerald Ford, and Sandra Day O'Connor by Ronald Reagan. Clarence Thomas is the only justice under 65, and the court hasn't had a new member since 1994. John Kerry wants to protect Roe v. Wade. George Bush wants more justices like Scalia and Thomas. Is it time for a change? Will the next president be able to shape a new Supreme Court? We explore what that could mean for civil rights, the separation of church and state, gay marriage and abortion rights with reporters who cover the court and the Congress, civil rights advocates and constitutional law experts. Making News: Hike in War Funding Sought, Pushing Total to $225 Billion President Bush Senator Kerry have disputed the financial cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today's Washington Post says the Pentagon will ask for another $70 billion in emergency funding, next year. Jonathan Weisman, who is the author of that report, looks at the how the numbers shake out against the background of the presidential campaign. Reporter's Notebook: Is US Negligence to Blame for Missing Weapons in Iraq? CBS News and the New York Times have reported that 380 tons of explosives are missing from an Iraqi stockpile, left unguarded despite warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency. NBC News cites reporters embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in today's story that US troops did not find the explosives where the IAEA says they were before the invasion. John Diamond, who works out of the Pentagon for USA Today, sorts through the seemingly contradictory reports.