What is this retirement Friday? Must be nice to clock out on the best day of the week!:
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the court’s oldest member and leader of its liberal bloc, says he is retiring. President Barack Obama now has his second high court opening to fill.
Stevens says he will step down when the court finishes its work for the summer in late June or early July.
His announcement Friday in Washington had been hinted at for months. It comes 11 days before his 90th birthday.
Stevens began signaling a possible retirement last summer when he hired just one of his usual complement of four law clerks for the next court term. He acknowledged in several interviews that he was contemplating stepping down and would certainly do so during Obama’s presidency.
The timing of his announcement leaves ample time for the White House to settle on a successor and Senate Democrats, who control 59 votes, to conduct confirmation hearings and a vote. Republicans have not ruled out an attempt to delay confirmation.
Now, I will be first to admit, that my knowledge of this whole process, is rather limited. So, If my analysis of this; is not like professional, please excuse that. 😉 Now Ed and AP over at HotAir both agree that they both doubt Obama is going to try and do anything radical, as some of the News Sources are writing in their articles. They also both agree that the G.O.P. will most likely not try and play the role of obstructionist. That is because of the elections coming up. However, their old boss, Michelle Malkin says to hold on to your hats, because there could be a protracted battle up there on the hill for the control on the SCOTUS. So, I guess at this point, it is whom you believe. Personally, I really do not know. I somehow doubt myself that either the Democrats or the Republicans have the heart for some sort of huge, epic, battle this close to the elections. That is because if the Democrats go for the throat and try something crazy, the Republicans are going to use it in the campaigns against them. Likewise, if the Republicans go for broke and block everything, the Democrats could do the same thing. So, either way, both sides are going to be screwed, no matter what they do.
Either way, it should be very interesting to follow. 😀
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