November 11, 2008 Speculating an Obama Supreme Court Play video

(Alison King, NECN) - President-Elect Barack Obama has many choices to make over the next couple of months regarding his administration, but there are also some choices after Inauguration Day which could affect this country's court system. For it is the President of the United States who appoints Justices to the Supreme Court.

"I want my Judges to understand that part of the role of the court is to look out for the people who don't have a lot of political power," Obama said. "That's the role of the court."

It was on the campaign trail that we learned a bit about the type of Justices Obama would appoint to the Supreme Court.

"I would not provide a litmus test, but I am somebody who believes that Roe v. Wade was rightly decided," Obama said.

Now that he is President-Elect, many are taking a closer look at the nine current Justices and wondering which ones Obama may be replacing over the next four years.

"There are three members of the court right now that people think are likely to leave in the next several years," said Jack Beerman, Boston University Law Professor.

Beerman was referring to John Paul Stevens -- the oldest Justice at 88 -- appointed in 1975 by President Ford.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, 75, was appointed by Bill Clinton in '93, and has had some health problems.

And 69-year-old Justice David Souter, a Bush One appointee, who some have said is anxious to move back to his home in New Hampshire.

"The

court is pretty closely divided between liberals and conservatives and they are all on the liberal side in the sense that, if there's going to be a liberal decision, those three would almost without fail be in the majority," Beerman said.

70-year-old Stephen Breyer has also been grouped with the more liberal Justices.

Rounding out the conservative side, there are the two newest and youngest George W. Bush appointees: 53-year-old Chief Justice John Roberts and 58-year-old Samuel Alito -- also 72-year-old Justice Antonin Scalia and 60-year-old Clarence Thomas.

Anthony Kennedy, 72-years-old, is considered the swing vote on the bench.

None are expected to leave during a first Obama term.

But who would Obama appoint to the Supreme Court?

Some names that have been mentioned:

-- Diane Wood from the Court of Appeals in Chicago.

-- Sonia Sotomayer from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York

-- Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein

-- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick

"It would be an interesting move for Barack Obama to make to put someone who hadn't had judicial experience and really hadn't had federal experience, but someone who's a governor of a state and some people might really like that because it would bring a different perspective to the Supreme Court," Beerman said.