O'Connor retiring from the Supreme Court

[lethal]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...cotus_o_connor

Wow...W's going to have two vacancies to fill if Rehnquist's rumored retirement also occurs. O'Connor has been a swing vote (to the left) in recent years on issues such as abortion and affirmative action. It looks like future decisions may start going the other way.

[yoMAMA]

I heard her hubsand is ailing.

[Yeahman]

Prepare for one of the biggest political battles in US history.
Hopefully Rehnquist will announce him retirement soon too so that there is more room for comprimise. Otherwise, I can't conceive of a way to avoid the nuclear option.

[Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by lethal

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...cotus_o_connor

Wow...W's going to have two vacancies to fill if Rehnquist's rumored retirement also occurs.

Two? More like 4.

O'Connor, Reinquist, Stevens and probably Scalia will retire in 2008 to make sure he can get Bush and Scalia's friend Cheney to let him select his replacement.

Bush might pick the black Larry Thopmson or a Mexican American or even co-author of the Patriot Act Viet Dinh.

[Yeahman]

Scalia ain't gonna retire. He's "only" 69 and healthy.

[lethal]

The egos of Supreme Court justices are huge. They want to leave their legacies and put their stamp on American jurisprudence for as long as possible. They're not going to retire at the whim or command of the President.

Stevens is part of the liberal block anyway, why would he retire to help W out?

I honestly wouldn't be totally surprised if Rehnquist didn't retire this summer and actually ended up dying on the bench.

[yoMAMA]

Originally Posted by Grasshopper

or even co-author of the Patriot Act Viet Dinh.

you mean that yellow bastard?

[Banana]

We're in big trouble if Viet Dinh is even considered. I mean, Michelle Malkin wholeheartedly endorses him.

[TyroneK(prettypretty)]

Ladies, bone up on your contraceptives because getting an abortion is going to become much harder.

And for everyone else, try not to be gay or a minority.

[yoMAMA]

Originally Posted by TyroneK(prettypretty)

And for everyone else, try not to be gay or a minority.

it's not like we have a say in that.....

[Fireblade]

Crap. Now with the way things are turning out, we may have an entirely right-wing bench. Keyword being "May". Sometimes things work out weirdly, because I'm for damn sure that Regan didn't anticipate O'Connor to turn out as she did. And I appreciate all influence she had over the court when she was on the bench.

[Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by lethal

Stevens is part of the liberal block anyway, why would he retire to help W out?

Of course Stevens doesn't want Bush to appoint his replacement but the man is 85 years old and been on the court for 29 years.

I'm not saying he wants to retire but at 85 he's about to be permanently retired any day now.

http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/legal_entity/101/

Originally Posted by ye110man

Scalia ain't gonna retire. He's "only" 69 and healthy.

True, but he'll be 72 in Bush's last year and he may want to pick his own successor and Bush and Scalia's good friend Cheney will be sure to appoint him.

Plus in retirement he can make a fortune for his family on the conservative lecture tour and with books.

He could be making $80-100,000 per speech!

I don't think he's made any kind of money as a career jurist.

US Supreme Court Justice makes only $199,200 per year.

Why wouldn't they just add $801 to put it over $200,000 just to make it look a little better.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/01/news/newsmakers/salary/

Supreme Court: A just salary?

Compared to the private sector, it's not a lot. Here's how the wage stacks up against other jobs.

July 1, 2005

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The successor to retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will shape the direction of our nation's democratic experiment, one of nine individuals charged with deciding such crucial issues as the separation of church and state, the extent of power the federal government can exert over the states and possibly even deciding who will become the next president.

But one thing they won't get a chance to do is make a boatload of money in the process.

Whoever replaces O'Connor will undoubtedly have one of the finest legal minds in the country. He or she will also have a paycheck of less than $200,000 a year, compared with an average of over $5 million for corporate executives.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/07/01/news...years_work.gif

'There is a motivational force that is not money," said Paul Hodgson, a compensation specialist at the Portland, Maine based research group the Corporate Library, in explaining why people become civil servants. "If you're a lawyer and you're not motivated by money, that would probably seem like the most important job there is."

Hodgson said the compensation discrepancy is especially acute for Supreme Court justices because, unlike many other high-level public employees, their lifetime appointment means they will most likely not return to the lucrative private sector.

But don't take up a collection plate just yet. The Supreme Court judges, like other top government officials, still make some five times the amount of the average American worker.

And, as Hodgson notes, "If you're up for a Supreme Court position, you've probably made a lot of money already."

[Arex]

Originally Posted by ye110man

Hopefully Rehnquist will announce him retirement soon too so that there is more room for comprimise. Otherwise, I can't conceive of a way to avoid the nuclear option.

One way to avoid the "nuclear option" would be for Bush to appoint a bonafide conservative-leaning moderate who will maintain the status quo on abortion. I'm not really sure the man knows what "compromise" means though.

RX

[Grasshopper]

Wow, look at this.

No way would I recognize them.



This is a combo showing Sandra Day O'Connor, left, in a 1950 and William Rehnquist, in a 1948 Stanford University college yearbook photo. O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said Friday, July 1, 2005, she is retiring. (AP Photo) (AP)

[hooligan]

Viet Dinh? How many heads can Bush use to support his war on our Civil liberties and back up torture. Woo hoo. Wasn't there another nomination to the appellate courts of a judge who actually wrote memos that endorsed torture as long as there wasn't death or organ failure.