Rumors have surfaced that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, upon hiring just one law clerk for next year's term instead of the expected four, will retire soon. Rachel Maddow has more:
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Though Sotomayor's confirmation was historic, her leanings on the Supreme Court are yet to be determined, and she could likely move the court to the right.
Stevens will be the 90 at the start of the 2010 Supreme Court session. He has struck down school prayer, supported a woman's right to choose in Roe v. Wade, and opposed the death penalty for minors. Let's hope President Obama takes this opportunity to nominate a woman who will do justice to Stevens' fantastic record, and who will balance the extremism of Roberts and Alito. (I predict some nasty dialogue from the right about how Obama already nominated a woman of color, and that one is enough.)
Stay tuned.
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Ginsburg's successor will almost certainly have to be a woman, so Obama may appoint three.
"Though Sotomayor's confirmation was historic, her leanings on the Supreme Court are yet to be determined, and she could likely move the court to the right. "
I dunno, she seems like a solid choice to me. Her progressive thoughts on feminist and WOC issues seem solid, and certainly provoked enough outrage among the usual right-wingers to reassure me at least.
They'd have thrown the same fit if Obama had nominated the kaiser.
Good point!
I really hate that we end up in identity politics wars with Supreme Court picks. I do understand how important it is for minority and historically marginalized groups to be included and represented in the highest court in the land, but we end up, much like the Obama versus Hillary primary fight, running into the same competing guilt complex territory. We'll always have opposition from the Right. I'm tired of us beating ourselves to a pulp for them.
I think he will do the same thing he did with Sonya Sotomayor, namely he'll pick a highly qualified candidate without regarding gender or race.
I don't know if I believe Obama picked Sotomayor without regard to her gender or race. I'm pretty sure when he looked at all the highly qualified people who one might consider for the position, he made sure he went for one who wasn't a white male (I'm not saying that's a BAD thing, mind you - notice how often presidents looked at their highly qualified pool and always, always selected a white male - you have to make a conscious choice at some point during the selection process to keep going with the status quo or not)
On a purely business side of the issue, I'd like to see him pick someone who doesn't come from the bench, since his first pick did. Not only is a it good to get a variety of racial/gender/religious/etc. perspectives, but it's also important to have different career backgrounds. An AG will have a different POV than an appellate judge, for example.
Sonia Sotomayor, our first post-racial, post-sexual SC nominee?
Dear Sir,
I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I have recently put on the market. Perchance you are interested?
And I even like Sotomayor.
That reminded me of Bill O'Reilly's claim, when confronted with the suspicion that working class was code for white, that he was actually in fact picturing a guy with no color or race at all.