WASHINGTON -- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said Friday she is retiring.Well, it sounds like we'll have 2 fights coming up. The Rehnquist retirement didn't worry me because he'd be replaced with a similar justice. Sandy, on the other hand is often the #5 vote of some of the good majorities we get on this court.
O'Connor, 75, said she expects to leave before the start of the court's next term in October, or whenever the Senate confirms her successor. There was no immediate word from the White House on who might be nominated to replace O'Connor.
suspected for a while now.
This was expected, but still not so good.
3 comments:
Oh. No. I'm seriously freaked out on this. Geez. I'm well beyond hoping Bush is maybe going to nominate a moderate, principled conservative with broad appeal; he mighta bit on that with one appointment, but with two? You just know he's got a li'l Saclia clone stashed away somewhere.
But maybe not.
There will be an effort to avoid another Kennedy. they don't want a guy that looks ok but ends up running too moderate when he get's to the court. I could see ONE of the 2 nominees being a Thomas-type guy. I don't just mean in ideology, but also race. if they can get an arch conservative activist that's Hispanic or a woman (or both!), the idea is that it would force the Dems to go against their base's demographics to fight the judge. Thomas had the right mindset and that was enough for bush to overlook the fact that he'd severed as a judge for LESS THAN ONE YEAR prior to being appointed to the bench! I say bush appoints 1 white male and one minority of some sort.
Also important to note is that Bush has done a GREAT deal to take power and control away from the Capitol and consolodated it in the white house. one thing that makes this president appear NOT to be a lame duck is the willingness of Politicians like Frist to carry the water for him. Evidently no one sees their own ego over what they think they can get out of ridding the president's coattails.
You may ask what value there is with such low numbers on the president. to that i'd say that many of those that DO like him are concentrated in GOP districts/states and those supporters are NOT luke-warm. they are ready to die for this guy and they don't care WHAT the truth is regarding this president.
i meant to say Souter, not Kennedy.
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