DENVER - Vice presidential candidate Joe Biden is urging voters to think about what type of justices they want on the U.S. Supreme Court before they decide who they want in the White House.

Biden said U.S. President George W. Bush’s two conservative appointees — Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito — have pushed the nation’s highest court far to the right.

This, Biden charged, has threatened civil liberties and set back efforts to desegregate schools and obtain equal pay for women.

“Other than ending the war in Iraq, the single most significant thing that Barack Obama can do — and I hope I’ll be able to he help him — will be to determine who the next members of the Supreme Court are going to be.”

“It will effect the lives of all of our children,” Biden told a roundtable discussion with working mothers hosted by Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

During the next four years, Biden said, citing life expectancy estimates, there may be as many as three vacancies on the nine-member court.

“It’s not merely the woman’s right to choose (to have an abortion) which is at stake,” Biden told a mostly female crowd of several hundred people.

“It’s whether or not you are going to be able to have a fair shot at a fair wage,” Biden said. “It’s whether or not you are going to able to demand that you are treated equally in every aspect of your life.”

“So please help us,” Biden said. “The country needs Barack Obama.” 

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- Photo credits: Reuters/Mike Segar (Biden arrives at the Democratic National Convention); Larry Downing (Supreme Court justices)