Justice Stevens retiring

This will be very interesting and can easily have a major impacton the November elections. Nobody is blind in the White House and neither are the Lefties running the Democrat Party. Although keeping their majorities doesn't seem like it's as important doing what it can while it can to turn the U.S. into a Euro. Oliphant is basically correct, though, in this assessment. Don't forget the weight that de facto Republican Joe Liebermann carries, especially when things really begin boiling over in the Middle East over the Chamberlain-type apperasement initiatives by Mr. Obama.

Nominate Sasha Obama. She has more compassion and intellect in her pinky finger than in the entire Conservative movement.

Let's see what kind of a radical Obama nominates this time!

Stevens has been a very good judge. Obama and Democrats need to forge ahead and pick a true liberal to replace him.

Typical sloppy MSM reporting to bring up the filibuster as a standard procedure. No Supreme Court nomination has been filibustered in over 50 years. For the Republicans to filibuster now would be a major escalation of their war on the president.

It's also worth noting that Stevens was confirmed unanimously. Of course, by the standards of 1975 when he was appointed, he's right in the middle, not left, not right. That's why he got every single vote, despite how sensitive the situation was (right after Watergate, and replacing a justice that President Ford had tried to impeach a few years earlier). In all likelihood, Obama will nominate someone very similar to Stevens. We'll see if we get another unanimous vote. I'm not holding my breath.

Nice guy, poor judge.

Big Cub fan, the justice.

May you live long enough to see the Cubs win the World Series.

Can we even dream that President Obama's choice to replace Justice Stevens will be as mistaken as President Fords' nomination was in the first place?

Thank heaven Justice Stevens is finally getting off the Court. There are good liberal justices and poor ones and Justice Stevens was one of the poor ones. He routinely allowed his personal sympathies and biases to guide his votes, without regard for the precedential implications of those rulings. (The extremely sympathetic profile of him in the recent New Yorker clearly demonstrated that he no longer felt the Constitution should be followed, but rather that his personal feelings should be the law of the land.) Justice Stevens is definitely a guy you'd like to have as a neighbor or friend, but not someone making legal determinations that, under the rule of stare decisis, have far-reaching and usually unintended consequences.

Is JP a Cubs fan? I guess that's right.

St. Jude's club.

Just another of his endearing traits.

Anyhow, I don't know how you find someone to replace JP. The very model of a Justice.

Is largely Protestant America ready for a Supreme Court with 6 Catholics and 3 Jews?

As we all know, religion plays no part in their decisions, or in how those decisions are received by the public.

(Just teasing.)

There is an old saying: "You can't tell a man in a bow tie what to think."

JP certainly proves that.

So now all we have to do is find a WASP who favors bow ties......

BigCat,

There is no one currently on the face of the earth who will live that long.

Thanks for the reminder. I guess it was by a unanimous vote that JP was confirmed.

For those lacking knowledge of Illinois history, JP got a big launch for his judicial career by Walter Schaefer who asked him to head up the investigation of a scandal involving race track stock which led to the resignation of 2 members of the Supreme Court, Solfisberg and Klingbiel, as I recall.

Schaefer himself had been on JFK 's "short list" with Byron White , and probably would have been appointed by JFK had he not been assassinated.

JP came out of that job as "special counsel" like the knight on the white horse, and was a "natural" for confirmation after the Watergate scandals. He was an old school Republican, the kind that no longer exists, having been crowded out of the party by the right wing crazies.

Cross Garland off the list.
There is no chance this administration would have the audacity to name a qualified, white male.

Justice Stevens is not only a very humble and decent person he HAS indeed been a GREAT judge, no matter which side of the fence you're on. Doesn't play golf very well though, played with him and his wife once. Justice Stevens thank you for your long and stellar service to our country!!

He gave a commencement speech at my college. Just a great human being.

Hopefully we will filibuster his replacement until President Romney can name a new justcice.

What is Durbin smoking? Stevens is a knee-jerk reactionary liberal who rarely let the facts or precedent or especially common sense interfere with his pre-destined opinions. The late great President Ford's biggest mistake. He should have left the court decades ago but he refused to step down while a Republican was in office. That's how "moderate and independent" he is.

Kagan will get the nod because she has a minimal paper trail even though Diane Wood wouold make a better Supreme Court justice.

Let's hope that whoever is nominated will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States...remember the Constitution, people??? Many elected officials and too many voters have forgotten it and that's too bad. And it's not about liberal or conservative, or now, socialism or facism. It's about the law. Hopefully the next judge will have full respect of the US Constitution and respect and fairness for the law.

This article is distracting from the main point of the Presidency. How many free throws did Barack make today?

Draft Alex Kozinski!!

There should be an age at which justices are made to retire before senility and poor judgement sets in. Oh, never mind, Stevens had poor judgement all along. Another flaw in the system is no lifetime appointments to anything, ever. It will be interesting to see who Obama plucks from the depths to replace him.

Most of the news I've heard today said he is no liberal and no matter who Obama nominates it will not change the current demeanor of the court.

I see the problem.

1. Go to the mug shot.
2. Roll your computer screen view so that the bridge of JP's nose is at the bottom of your screen.
3. Who does this Socialist look like now?
4. Damn if it isn't jimmy carter

Old Age. A hell of a deal. All of the Cartwrights are gone. Half of The Beatles ~ gone. 25% of Pink Floyd ~ gone, 40% if you were to include Syd Barrett. 40% of the original Pretenders, 20% of The Cars, likewise gone. SRV ~ gone. But Socialists and Marxists, they just go on forever. Mustapha should appoint a Cuban guy. Fidel Castro. Yeah he’s probably available and has the kind of World View that Liberals revere.

BigCat,

There is no one currently on the face of the earth who will live that long.

Posted by: NAVYFLYER09 | April 9, 2010 12:22 PM
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NAVYFLYER09, I beg to differ. See my Mustapha pick, somewhere above. The guy is only a mere 90 miles from Key West.

Sen. Orin Hatch (R-Utah) said he will expect a nominee who is not an "activist judge'' and "who would substitute their* (his or her) own views for what the law requires.

This is only one nominee, not a group, so 'their' is ungrammatical.

Where do I send my resume?? I'm fully qualified to guess what someone meant over 250 years ago.

I think Justice Stephens has been a wonderful influence on the court. His liberal leaning philosophies balanced the court during the Bush years and although it is likely that someone similar will be appointed to replace him under Obama, his legacy will be remarkable.

Unsensible,

Compassion is not a qualification for being on the Supreme Court. Understanding the Constitution and having the ability to apply - that's a qulaification.

Compassion? That's the problem with you tochy-feely flatliners.

Django,

I beg to differ with you about someone living long enough to see the Cubs win a WS. After all, we are talking about the Cubs.

It would be interesting to know if O. Hatch thinks JPS is an "activist" judge.

Anyway, Judge Alex won't be going anywhere anytime soon: he's the "porno judge" who posted porno on his web site, for reasons which were never adequately explained. Plus, he never learned to speak English with an American accent.

I don't believe the Supreme Court has ever had a justice who did not speak English with an American accent.....

Another one on Judge Alex's court, the 9th Cir., who probably will stay put is Judge Bybee--the "torture judge". In fact if his torture memos hadn't been suppressed under a spurious claim of "executive privilege" he wouldn't have been confirmed.....

When you look out over the horizon, there don't seem to be any Holmes or Cardozos or Brandeises or Robert Jacksons out there on the lower courts. But a lot of technicians. Very good technicians. Somewhat lacking in soul. Soul-less technicians, perhaps.

President could appoint the furthest left member of the Senate.

Then let the right wingers try their usual mudslinging attacks--they would be seen as merely partisan, rather than substantive.

They might actually retract their fangs a bit.....

Because one of the right wing campaigns is to limit the federal govt. and to some extent state govts. to what they perceive to be the "proper" role of govt., i.e., Pentagon, it would be refreshing to see someone from the executive side of things to counter that, like Gov. Grandholm of MIchigan. Plus she's easy on the eyes.....

Ornery,

"President could appoint the furthest left member of the Senate." - Too bad he was made president.

Are you telling me the Ginsberg and Sotomayer are not easy on the eyes. I think there a couple of lawyers that are easy on the eyes in this group.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xIOLgnnwbw

T,

Bernie Sanders disputes the title.

Anyhoo, Barack was "made President" by a commanding electoral victory.

As opposed to, say, a predecessor who was appointed......

One of JP's greatest dissents, by the way....

I wish someone can learn me how to post those links, T.

Then I WOULD be mean.

Or at least learn me how to cut and past from posts I'd like to destroy; then I could get nasty.....

That Utoob thing was not nice. Not nice at all.

Though I must quibble with the choices a bit:

Michelle Malkin?

Ann Coulter?

Not on a desert island......

* * * * *
Posted by: ornery | April 10, 2010 12:14 AM
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ornery,
.
First of all, Judge Alex Kozinski didn’t post porno on his web site. See http://lessig.org/blog/2008/06/the_kozinski_mess.html if you want to know the truth. Kozinski invited an investigation into the matter. He never violated the law or broke any ethics rules.
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In the second place, Judge Kozinski can reason, speak, read and write better than many jurists who speak English with an American accent. In fact, his opinions are actually fun to read when he writes in his sardonic style reminiscent of jurists like Michael Musmanno and Robert Gardner. Besides, I wasn’t aware that speaking with an American accent was a prerequisite for serving on the United States Supreme Court.
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In the third place, Kozinski is vastly more experienced and knowledgeable than the next 100 progressive candidates that Obama might nominate.
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However, Obama would never nominate Kozinski because Kozinski is honest and practical when it comes to construing and applying the Constitution and laws of the United States. Progressives aren’t. Progressives are interested in pushing the progressive agendum rather than following the law. Brennan was one of those. Stevens turned himself into one. Thus, we can simply expect another progressive wonk to replace the progressive wonk into which Stevens had transmogrified himself.

Where do I send my resume?? I'm fully qualified to guess what someone meant over 250 years ago.

Posted by: Tim | April 9, 2010 8:59 PM
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Tim,

You very well may be as qualified as the Leftist that Mustapha will surely place before the Senate. Please allow me, however, to correct a thing of two in your thought process.

1. Maybe 250 years is just a quick round-off number, but our country is just short of 234 years old. The Constitution was adopted in 1787. It is therefore 223 years old. The difference may seem trivial, but 250 would be somewhat of a milestone that I hope we DO make. In this hour, there would have to be a betting line on that.

2. The idea of The Constitution is that it establishes the basic guidelines of governance. It protects us, at least to some degree, of being dominated or enslaved by a Hitler type, a Stalin, a Chavez, a usurper of total political power. In history, those situations often have bad endings. We would like to not to have to live through that, even once.

3. Us damn Conservatives, Right Wingers, Wingnuts, Teabags, or whatever you would choose to call us, consider the U.S. Constitution as fundamental and essential to our liberty. The Constitution does not tell anyone how they should live in the American system but it does place LIMITS on what the government can do to us, its citizens, the very people that it should have some interest in protecting. Unfortunately Liberals, do not seem to see any value in much of this.

4. Rocket Science IS complicated. Nuclear Physics IS complicated. The Mathematics of Polyhedral Surfaces gets complicated. Regardless to what any Liberal would insist, THIS ain’t none of THAT. A reasonably intelligent person should be able to read the Constitution two or three times and get a good comprehension of the intent. CERTAINLY, someone trained in Constitutional Law should be able to understand it. I would not expect Supreme Court decisions to be 9-0, but damn, the interpretation of the Constitution should have some sort of constitutional basis on both sides of the issue.

Just like the number 3, 4, and 5 hitters in baseball should have home run power, the judges that sit on the Supreme Court should base at least some part of their interpretation of the issues before them on the Constitution. THAT is THEIR job and folks just need to show some interest in doing their job.

Terry,

Bartman. That cotton pickin’ Bartman. “Hopefully” the Liberals would allow me to describe Bartman in those kind of terms. Now, I myself, have picked the cotton, but I do apologize to the Race People if that is somehow racist.

Have to tell ya though, that Django in left field, in his prime, would have caught that ball (I think), so I know that Moises Alou would have caught it, sans the inteference of a fan with a democrat / Liberal kind of brain. Have never understood why fans frequently damage the home team like that. For 5 $, or whatever, a fan can buy a damn baseball.

My Red Sox broke through, so there is some “hope” for the Cubs. We just never know when.

Ornery,

As opposed to those in the second half of the video, you would do that in a New York Minute. Nobody said you had to listen to them.

As for the links, open a second session of the internet, find you favorite loon website, highlight the link (top of page), right click copy, go back to the Swamp, right click paste. All done.

Janet Napolitano for Supreme Court Justice. Michelle Malkin is Trig Palins' mother.

T, I feel like Dr. Jekyl, pondering whether to sample some of his own concoction---wondering if it will work, what it will do.....

Or perhaps like that mythological Pandora.....

JW, I was just going off a bit about Judge Alex.....I'm sure he's a fine fellow. I just have that streak.....

My forte however is one liners, the fewer words the better.......

However on here, one seems to have to explicate context more than one would like....

I thought I'd rib him a bit---his side of the aisle is always criticizing the Mexican-Americans for not speaking/ declining to speak English. Of course many are equally fluent in both languages and prefer to speak Spanish as a matter of pride.....

I like to recall some of those Mexican families were in the US even before the 17th century, when my family came....

But seriously:

We WASPs need representation on the S. Ct.

Sandra, Souter already gone; JP on the way out.

What about Sheldon Whitehouse?

He's a descendant of that Mayflower crowd, from Brewster or Aldrich or Winthrop -- wait, I'll look it up....OK, William Bradford of Mass.

He was US Attorney, very knowledgeable about legislation and the role of the Congress....

WASP Power!!

The nice thing about nominating a sitting Senator is:

no unseemly food fights.

Courtesy. A quick vote.

After all, all doubts are resolved in favor of the nominee, because you don't want to vote against him, have the nomination fail, and then have to sit next to him for years to come in those committee hearings.....

Ornery,

Terry helped you with the links that liberals so love to cut and post from their various anti-America propaganda sites. I tried to help Mustapha deliver something that could have possibly been called “a pitch” for the Nationals season opener. No one can say that we on the Right are not compassionate and altruistic. Programming out error is just a very difficult thing to do.

Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin ~ that is a very tough combination for liberals. They should never enter that arena alone. I would have to add Liz Cheney and Laura Ingraham to the mix. Filet-of- Liberal on the menu Eight Days A Week.

Reminds me too of a Tom Petty song ~ “I WON’T BACK DOWN”. A Liberal on that island would have better luck floating out there in the deep water with the sharks.

Dj, I think Coulter and Malkin would do to me what allegedly was done to people in that night club Steele is having trouble over.

I know they wouldn't want to hear me speak....

I would be like Inspector Pazzi after the Dante lecture by Dr. Fell at the Palazzo Vecchio....

Only able to blink--one for no, two for yes....

Ornery,

IF I had any influence on them, and I don’t, I would ask them to show much mercy along with that compassionate side of conservatism.

The righteous Ladies of the Right are always looking at the End Game, and if the End Game is not making much sense to them, they are going to come at it hard. They will not sit around a table and graciously allow Liberals to shape the argument. It’s hard to out-talk Bill O’Reilly, but they sure will try.

When Republicans go off-base, they will re-range the artillery and direct fire on them. If I were on the island, I would spend part of each day collecting coconuts and firewood in order that our special friendship may be better maintained.

Agree or disagree with them, I find them to be extremely intelligent, very quick of wit, and no one’s de facto mouthpiece. I know too that they can relate to Dante-like experiences. That, we do wish to side track or avoid. Thanx for having a good sense of humor.

I can't believe Alex Kozinski would even be mentioned as a remote possibility. He is the scumbag that was caught in the Office of Special Counsel scandal - the enemy of all whistleblowers, the enemy of everything good and honest. He shouldn't even be a Judge.

http://www.examiner.com/x-35807-LA-Homeland-Security-Examiner~y2010m7...d23-Office-of-Special-Counsel-OSC--the-dark-legacy

http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/mining_whistleblower_speaks_out_against_massey

These are the links that you need to see what Kozinski is and always has been.