Obama's Supreme Court: Stevens next?

by Mark Silva

President Barack Obama, who only recently celebrated his first appointment to the Supreme Court this summer, may see another opportunity soon.

New speculation about the timing of the first-term president's second chance to shape the direction of the nation's highest court has been fueled today by the acknowledgement of Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's senior member, that he has hired only one law clerk for the court's 2010-11 term.

Stevens, like other justices, typically hires four clerks a year. The new term opens in October. (The justice is pictured in a 2005 file photo by J. Scott Applewhite / AP)

"It would be out of character for Stevens to hire more clerks when he knew he was going to retire," Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School in Washington, told Bloomberg News. Turley and other court observers see the limited clerk hiring as an indication that Stevens might step down during the coming year.

Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg has confirmed that Stevens has hired only one clerk for 2010-11. Retired justices can have one clerk and an office at the court.

The departure of the long-serving Stevens could offer Obama another court appointment soon after the seating of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic member of the court, whose nomination was confirmed by the Senate this summer and who will hear arguments in her first case next week.

However, like the Sotomayor appointment, a replacement for Stevens might not necessarily shift the ideological balance of the John Roberts-led court, often divided by 5-4 on controversial rulings. Stevens is the leader of the court's liberal members, a supporter of abortion rights, affirmative action and protections for the criminally accused -- and should Obama appoint someone of similar leanings the Roberts majority will prevail until the retirement of one of his own allies on the court.

Stevens, 89, is the court's oldest justice by 16 years - though has shown no signs of slowing down. He is said to play tennis every week with his daughter.

"The justice still hits a mean drop shot," daughter Susan Mullen, a lawyer in Virginia, told Bloomberg - she also said retirement isn't something the two discuss.

Stevens joined the court in 1975 and is the second-oldest justice in the court's history, after Oliver Wendell Holmes. He is the seventh-longest-serving, with 33 plus years.

The Associated Press first reported that Stevens confirmed that he has hired only one clerk for the coming term, but he did not say whether he plans to hire his full allotment or whether he will leave the court at the conclusion of the term that starts next month.

"I'd be surprised if he hired one but not four," Columbia University law professor Jamal Greene, who worked for Stevens in 2006 and 2007, told the AP.

One former clerk, University of Oklahoma law professor Joseph Thai, told the AP that he takes the Stevens' clerk-hiring as a sign of retirement plans.

"It seems to indicate that he probably won't go beyond the current term," Thai said, cautioning that Stevens has said nothing to him about leaving.

(wire services contributed to this report.)