According to the latest rumor, both Rehnquist AND John Paul Stevens will announce their resignations from the Supreme Court today. (The latest on the Rehnquist rumor is that he will announce between 10:00am and 12:00pm today.)
I'm refusing to believe this one.
Justice Stevens is 85 years old so I guess he's ready for some rest and relaxation, but I wish the liberal justice would bite the bullet and stay. Maybe he's heard that the abrasive and polarizing Scalia will be the new Chief Justice. Maybe he'd like to spend the remainder of his life smelling the flowers instead of performing the thankless task of writing dissents. Maybe he's weary of serving on a Court that has seen a dramatic decline in public respect since Bush v. Gore.
In his Bush v. Gore dissent, Stevens wrote:
"Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."
Yeah, those days are so gone. Years ago, in my first con law course, my own confidence in the Court's impartiality was severely shaken by reading the opinions of Scalia. Frankly, I found the man to be more suited for a straight jacket than a position on the Highest Court in the land. In light of some of the opinions Scalia has written, at the very least, he deserves to be a regular guest on the Jerry Springer show.
We have enough divisiveness in this country without a Chief Justice Scalia. But I fear that a Chief Justice Scalia is exactly what Bush has in mind. At least Scalia has "nothing against homosexuals," or so he felt it necessary to say in a rant against the "homosexual agenda." Funny, I've read some of Scalia's anti-choice opinions, but I don't recall him saying he has "nothing against women." Perhaps that statement will make it into one of his future opinions.
Worst case scenario: The Age of Reason is really going down, Scalia gets the promotion, Bush replaces a liberal and a moderate and a conservative with ultra right-wingers.
But all is not lost, there's still room left here for those of us who Just Can't Take it Anymore!
Oh yeah, there's a discussion here about whether or not there's some advantage for democrats to have Bush pick two justices at once. It seems lame to me, but I suppose it's something to do other than shake a collective fist at the sky.
I know a place in Newfoundland where none of this matters much. It's cold, but you can have hundreds of thousands of acres for your backyard. You can watch the icebergs float down the bay. You can have serenity and shake your head wonderingly at those crazy Americans. Something to think about.
Related post: Rehnquist to Retire . .
Tag: Supreme Court
