<p>President Barack Obama’s election victory on Tuesday may give him the opportunity to deepen his liberal imprint on the US Supreme Court. <br /><br /></p>.<p>A Harvard law graduate who taught constitutional law, Obama, a Democrat, named two liberals to the high court during his first four-year term. <br /><br />With his re-election, the retirement of one or more justices in the next four years could preserve the present ideological balance or, more significantly, move the bench to the left. <br /><br />The court’s nine justices are selected for life and their appointments can rank among a president's most enduring legacies. <br /><br />Four are in their 70s. Two - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79, and Stephen Breyer, 74 - are liberals. Two - Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy, both 76 - are conservatives. The biggest shake-up would come if either of the last two stepped down. <br /><br />A swing in the liberal direction could foster a new receptiveness to campaign finance regulation. The five-justice conservative majority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has ruled against such regulation, most notably in the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission dispute.<br /><br /> The chance of more muscle on the left in the future could influence conservative justices today, tempting them to be more forceful or, alternatively, more willing to compromise with liberals. <br /></p>
<p>President Barack Obama’s election victory on Tuesday may give him the opportunity to deepen his liberal imprint on the US Supreme Court. <br /><br /></p>.<p>A Harvard law graduate who taught constitutional law, Obama, a Democrat, named two liberals to the high court during his first four-year term. <br /><br />With his re-election, the retirement of one or more justices in the next four years could preserve the present ideological balance or, more significantly, move the bench to the left. <br /><br />The court’s nine justices are selected for life and their appointments can rank among a president's most enduring legacies. <br /><br />Four are in their 70s. Two - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 79, and Stephen Breyer, 74 - are liberals. Two - Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy, both 76 - are conservatives. The biggest shake-up would come if either of the last two stepped down. <br /><br />A swing in the liberal direction could foster a new receptiveness to campaign finance regulation. The five-justice conservative majority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has ruled against such regulation, most notably in the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission dispute.<br /><br /> The chance of more muscle on the left in the future could influence conservative justices today, tempting them to be more forceful or, alternatively, more willing to compromise with liberals. <br /></p>