This past February, the supreme court lost member Antonin Scalia. Scalia was 79 years old and was a justice for the supreme court for about 30 years. Since he's died there is now an even number of 8 justices instead of 9. This greatly effects the outcomes of things being debated upon because of the 4-4 splits. This has happened twice already in the past 8 weeks, one of the topics being public sector union fees. It's a big concern that the supreme court will have 8 justices til mid way through 2017. I think that this is a big issue because there definitely needs to be a 9th member in order to break the ties of the 4-4 outcomes. I think not only has the death of Scalia changed by the ties but also it helps to have one more persons input and to get the view of someone else's opinion can help sway the views the justices have on certain topics. This ties in with AP Gov because this past week we have been talking a lot about the Supreme Court justices and how they are nominated and voted upon. Its a hard process because we want to make sure that the person picked has the right backgrounds and qualifications and is fit best for the position. This reason is why they're may be only 8 justices until next year.