Justice Stevens to Retire

(January 20, 2009 - Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America)

Justice John Paul Stevens will retire mid-summer according to Fox News and the AP.  The development comes as a surprise to no one as the eighty-nine year old Liberal Justice only took on one law clerk for the current term and has been very open about his desire to have President Obama choose his replacement.  No definitive date for his departure has been set, but it appears he will step down when the Court goes into summer recess.  That timetable would “theoretically” allow his replacement to be seated by the next term of the Court.

The somewhat reclusive Justice offered interviews to both the Washington Post and New York Times last week signalling that this decision was imminent.  Stevens was nominated by Republican Gerald Ford Appointee 1975, and was confirmed by a 98-0 vote.

With his announced departure, attention has turned to the list of candidates on the table to replace him and speculation is already running rampant with 3-4 names emerging as the front-runners.

Elena Kagan – US Solicitor General and Former Dean of Harvard Law

Diana Wood – Chicago Court of Appeals

Merrick Garland – Washington Court of Appeals

Janet Nepolitano – Secretary Department of Homeland Security

Nepolitano is certainly the dark horse here, but the President has expressed a desire to find a nominee with a non-traditional background.  It should also be noted that the other three names on the list here are only considered the front-runners at the current hour because of their place on the short list of candidates in the Justice Sotomayor nomination process.  The President’s selection strategy could take him in an entirely different direction this time around, and we all know by now that he is capable of anything… and I mean anything.

With the ability to filibuster but not to vote down the nomination, Republicans will find themselves in a precarious position once this nominee emerges.  If the President chooses a radical Lefty, the situation will undoubtedly improve as Republicans could stand on principle, but if the President chooses an air-tight ideological “unknown” the debate could be an interesting one and one that would likely divide Republican votes.

The short of it is this…  It is clear that the President will choose a liberal.  The only question is whether he will choose an outright, open, and proud liberal / radical or a closet Lefty similar to the cut of Stevens.  The Left-Right balance of the Court will not be impacted either way but a hard-line radical liberal could impact potential outcomes as Stevens was seen as the “deal maker” amongst the current Members.  This could be good or bad for both sides of the ideological spectrum – depending on how you see “blind” judicial matters being compromised in the name of ideology…

With that in mind, the President could use this nomination to choose a “moderate” – if he has the ability to find or distinguish a “moderate” among his gaggle of Left Wing affiliations at this point… or he could use this pick as his legacy selection.  With control of the Senate inevitably swinging back to the GOP in 2010 and 2012, this may be his last opportunity to add a superlib of caliber near or equal to his own caste as Ginsburg’s retirement is likely to come in his successor’s first term – or if God truly has a sense of humor – President Obama’s second.

It should be an interesting Summer on Capitol Hill.  With the Senate still feeling the aftershocks of Obamacare and the pending debate over the President’s nuclear agreement with Russia coming down the aisle, the addition of this little piece of business should prove to be quite the political football.

Tags: john paul stevens, Justice, liberal, Obama, replacement, retire, step down, Supreme Court

This entry was posted on April 9, 2010 at 10:23 am and is filed under LIBERAL-DEMS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.