Shot In The Dark: This Could Be Good

February 04, 2006

This Could Be Good

Via KvM, some potentially amazing news: Justice Stevens may intend to retire during a GOP administration:

Stevens has not made any formal announcement regarding his retirement, nor is he known to be in poor health. But he is 85 years old, and rumor has it that he hopes to have his replacement named by a Republican president.

“The buzz in Washington is that Stevens was appointed by a Republican president and he considers himself one that plans to retire under a Republican president,” Gary Marx, executive director of the conservative Judicial Confirmation Network, told NewsMax.

On the one hand, it's Newsmax.

On the other, it's plausible; Steven is, between age and health, the most likely judge to leave next.

After the political quagmire the left got itself into over Alito, a conservative replacement for the overtly liberal Stevens would be the Battle of Berlin, politically speaking.

Posted by Mitch at February 4, 2006 08:00 AM | TrackBack

Comments

If the next nominee is going to get bloodied, let's pick a real fight. Three words:

Janice. Rodgers. Brown.

Posted by: JamesPh. at February 4, 2006 12:40 PM

One way Stevens could (in essence) make the confirmation of his own successor a pseudo-national-election IS, announce his resignation about two months before the 2006 election. The Supreme Court would then become THE issue for all Senate candidates. And if the Republicans (that Stevens maybe doesn't like so much) hold, or pick up seats in the Senate, then at least Stevens did what he could to have the public enlist more Democrats into the confirmation process--assuming that's what Stevens wants to happen.

Posted by: RBMN at February 4, 2006 02:36 PM

It has been tradition for Justices to retire (when possible) during an administration of the same party that appointed them. So, Newsmax doesn't really break ground here. However, on the court, the center has moved right, and Stevens has moved left, taking him well away from the Republicans. He, as much as anyone except Brennan and Earl Warren shows how difficult it is to pick a justice based on ideology, which is why the right was so frustrated by Miers; no track record at all, and a set of constitutional principles rivaled by most first year law students.

Could be interesting.

Posted by: Patrick at February 8, 2006 08:32 PM