Litigation

Is a Supreme Confrontation Near?

By Peter Hardin

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens hasn’t announced whether he will retire this year.

But that doesn’t matter in Washington, where an expected announcement has the White House, activists and the Senate “bracing for an election-year confrontation over the future of the Supreme Court,” according to a New York Times article. It went on to list names that have been mentioned (see Gavel Grab) as potentially on a short list of candidates.

The next high court nomination opportunity for President Obama will play out in a changed political setting from his last.

If Justice Stevens retires, the New York Times reported, his replacement “could secure the seat for the liberal faction for years. But not all liberals are alike. The president?s base hopes he will name a full-throated champion to counter Justice Antonin Scalia, the most forceful conservative on the bench.”

Given the president’s recent victory on health-care legislation, some advocates are hoping Obama will seize political momentum and take on picking a strong counterbalance to Justice Scalia.

Full post as published by The Gavel on March 26, 2010 (boomark / email).