Litigation

Leahy Explores Substitute Supreme Court Justices

By Peter Hardin

Is a change needed to allow a retired Supreme Court justices, like Sandra O’Connor or John Paul Stevens, to substitute on the high court? Sen. Patrick Leahy is interested in exploring that.

Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is weighing legislation to permit this. It could help head off 4-4 ties on the high bench and “encourage justices to recuse themselves more often when there is an appearance of partiality” in a particular case, according to a Washington Post article about Leahy’s concerns.

The newest justice, Elena Kagan, already has indicated she intends to sit out a dozen cases because she worked on them as U.S. solicitor general, and she’s likely to step aside for some others too.

The article was one of several looking ahead to the court’s docket with its new member seated, or looking back to lessons learned from Kagan’s confirmation process.

In the Los Angeles Times, David Savage wrote about some of the hot cases that could come before the court in her early years. In the National Law Journal, David Ingram examined the cost to future judicial picks of Kagan’s having shattered the recent “barrier” for nominees who haven’t been a judge.

Full post as published by The Gavel on August 09, 2010 (boomark / email).