Here's the text of the resignation:
"This is to inform you of my decision to retire from my position as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, effective upon the nomination and confirmation of my successor. It has been a great privilege indeed to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms. I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure."This is so much more significant than Chief Justice Rehnquist retiring, because replacing her vote will dramatically change the power balance on the Court.
I am all atremble!
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Holy crap. I think we can say goodbye to ANYTHING getting done in the Senate for the rest of the summer...
Get out your checkbooks!
Mr. Lee: I think the Judiciary Committee will bottle it up for awhile.
It will be interesting to see what Mr. Bush does. Will he go straight for the jugular and nominate a conservative?
I think it is a good time to do it. Memories are still fresh on the Consititutional Option.
There are reasons to dread the ensuing extravaganza, of course.
It should be said however, that Harry Reid has been sending signals to the White House about conservative jurists he feels would win easy Senate confirmation, including Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio. He would win easy Senate approval, as would Senator Hatch, I think.
Rigid ideologues of various persuasions--let's be honest, there are several different stripes of "conservatives" these days--will wish to insist on an ideologically-vetted nominee who promises never to change her or his mind about anything, nor grow in wisdom or knowledge. That could gum up the works considerably.
But a nominee who comes from the Senate and has a strong judicial background, even if of more conservative bent--as is true of both DeWine and Hatch--would, I think, be welcomed by almost everyone. My sense is that with few exceptions, most people want to avoid a debilitating partisan train wreck in any confirmation process.
How important is it that Bush nominates a woman?
I have to believe that he needs to.
Bring a seatbelt. This could get rough!
For social conservatives, this will be the big one, because it will actually change the balance of the court w/r/t Roe. I expect Michael McConnell: as reliably anti-Roe as one could be, but personally popular with the left/liberal academics who normally supply the intellectual firepower to derail conservative nominations.
Bush will go for the jugular when Rheinquist steps down, which will be very soon - Antonin will step up to the plate and still go duck hunting with Dick Cheney.
Well Roe is a 6-3 issue on the court with O'Conner (except for Nebraska/Partial Birth) so its not "in peril" as some may characterize this nomination. On other issues she has obviously been a swing vote though. But it will get spun by the abortion supporters, trying to keep Stevens on life support, as a threat.
O'Connor actually hurt the chances for a quick confirmation by the terms of her resignation. A powerful weapon would have been the idea that the Court couldn't function with only 8 members (especially where that 9th member is O'Connor), but O'Connor's resignation takes that off the table. I think it's entirely possible O'Connor could be around for much of another term, since she's said she's not leaving until and unless a successor is confirmed.
Our country will be better off the day Roe goes down in flames and we return to Judicial sanity.
Abortion supporters will learn that 49 out of 50 states will allow legal abortion and people will go back into their shells because the process will have been fairly decided by a majorty and not be a few old elitest Justices.
Roe is a tragedy for the country.
Actually, Matt, I understand the terms of O'Connor's resignation letter are pretty much standard-operating-procedure.
Yes Matt -- and besides, the term is over and the new term doesn't begin until October -- her leaving now provides the Senate with the maximum amount of time they possibly coul fhave to ensure that a new justice is in place when the new term begins.
They are standard terms (as I learned after posting the prior comment), but barring a consensus-type appointment like a current/former Senator or an unassailable current judge (e.g., Posner, Kozinski), there's no way in hell there's confirmation much before First Monday, especially given that no one wants to be in DC in August.
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