While the domestic economy and the nation’s role in international affairs may dominate the concerns of American voters and the campaigns of the candidates, many argue that one of the most significant executive powers is the naming of judges to the federal bench, and especially the naming of justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Senators John McCain, R- Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have expressed profoundly different views on this vital role.

Supreme Court justices are nominated by presidents, and then those nominees must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

In his four years in the U.S. Senate, Obama has voted on two nominees appointed by President George W. Bush: John Roberts, Jr., now chief justice of the United States, and Samuel Alito, Jr., now an associate justice.

Obama voted against the confirmation of both Roberts and Alito, who Democrats saw as a threat to Roe v. Wade and as jurists who might reduce the authority of the federal government to address civil rights violations.

Last year, Obama noted in a speech that he “taught constitutional law for 10 years, and when you look at what makes a great Supreme Court justice, it’s not just the particular issue and how they rule, but it’s their conception of the Court. And part of the role of the Court is that it is going to protect people who may be vulnerable in the political process, the outsider, the minority, those who are vulnerable, those who don’t have a lot of clout.”

In contrast, McCain supported the nominations of both Roberts and Alito, and has chastised federal courts for being too activist, stepping beyond the confines of the Constitution and finding rights and protections in the law where they don’t exist.

In a speech at Wake Forest University earlier this year, McCain said that Roberts and Alito “would serve as the model for my own nominees, if that responsibility falls to me. ... My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power.”

Earlier in his Senate career, McCain voted to approve the nomination of two of the most liberal members of the Court, Clinton appointees Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

At Wake Forest, McCain seemed to acknowledge that, as long as nominees are qualified for the post, High Court picks are the president’s prerogative. “Elections have consequences,” he said. “One of the consequences is the president of the United States gets to name his or her nominees to the bench.”

On the hot-button issue of the Second Amendment, McCain has been a supporter of gun rights, saying on his official campaign Web site: “Law-abiding citizens should not be asked to give up their rights because of criminals — criminals who ignore gun control laws anyway.”

Obama has supported local gun restrictions in Illinois. His stated view is that the Second Amendment provides individuals the right to bear arms, but that local gun bans to address crime and safety concerns also are appropriate.

Both McCain and Obama found some solace in a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on a gun ban in the District of Columbia.

McCain was among the lawmakers who signed a legal brief in District of Columbia vs. Heller, stating the ban was unconstitutional and should be overturned. The Supreme Court did overturn the ban, and addressed a much-debated point by saying the Second Amendment grants individuals, and not only “well-regulated militias,” the right to bear arms.

But in his majority opinion, Justice Scalia also said this right is “not unlimited,” and cited past cases in which permissible regulations were used in regard to dangerous or unusual weapons.