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Justice Stevens Retiring, Brace for Confirmation Battle!
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 9, 2010
Modified Apr 9, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 9, 2010
Modified Apr 9, 2010
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As expected, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's oldest and most liberal member, has announced his retirement. (Analysts had been expecting Stevens's retirement since last fall after he only hired one clerk.) In announcing his retirement today—just 11 days before his 90th birthday—Stevens said he hoped his successor is confirmed "well in advance of the commencement of the court's next term.'' He will step down when the court finishes its session in June or July. (Here's a pdf of Stevens's short letter to Obama announcing the retirement; it begins "My dear Mr. President.")
Among nominees rumored to be under consideration are Solicitor General Elena Kagan and several appeals court judges, including Diane Wood and Merrick Garland, the Times reports. Though his replacement will no doubt be liberal, the AP points out that whoever fills his seat will be hard pressed to match Stevens's knack for finessing a swing vote from justices like Anthony M. Kennedy. Stevens, a WWII veteran who considered himself a Republican when nominated by President Gerald Ford in 1975, was perceived by some as becoming increasingly liberal during the L'etat c'est moi Bush administration. In an excellent New Yorker profile last month, Jeffrey Toobin wrote:
Especially since Roberts took over as Chief Justice, Stevens has found himself confronting colleagues who have a very different approach—an aggressive, line-drawing conservatism that appears bent on remaking great swaths of Supreme Court precedent... In Bush v. Gore, Stevens framed his colleagues’ decision as an insult to the judicial role, one that could, he wrote, “only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land.” In words that became better known than anything in the collectively written majority decision, he continued:
"Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."
Tagged
bush v gore
john paul stevens
retiring
supreme court
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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