With four Supreme Court justices in their 70s, some analysts are saying it's likely that the next elected president will appoint at least one justice, shifting the balance of the court.
Elon Political Science Professor Dion Farganis agrees, and predicts that if President Obama is re-elected he would appoint a liberal justice and Governor Romney would do the opposite.
"If Obama gets re-elected and a conservative justice retires like Scalia, that would then change the balance," Farganis said. "If Romney gets elected and a liberal retires, that would change the balance. But I think what most people are forecasting is Obama re-election, Ginsberg retires, basically gets replaced with a younger Ginsberg not much change in terms of those big issues like abortion and marriage equality."
Those issues tend to be presented to and decided by the Supreme Court.
"The court does have a say in things that go even beyond the social issues," Farganis said. "Clearly they had a big impact on healthcare, which is a huge economic policy, and in addition to being a social policy, the court had a say in the election in 2000 for president. So they reach into political, economic, social, cultural, religious so I do think it's something voters should consider."
While the main focus of this election has been the economy, neither candidate has spent much time talking about the Supreme Court. But Farganis said that they still value the importance of the Supreme Court.
"The Court is something they respect and something they don't really feel like should be part of an election," he said. "They just kind of take a hands-off approach to it"