Will any Supreme Court Justices retire next presidential term?

[funkyflathead]

I'm thinking some of them-right and left- are holding on to see who is elected in 2004.

We desperately need a Dem or else we will be getting right wingers that Daschle and Feinstein will vote to confirm the way they are voting.

[Bombtrack]

1. more like this presidential term

3 of them are likely to either this year or next

[La_Serpiente]

2. YES

I have no doubt in my mind that one of them will retire. We are long overdue for a retiree. If one of the conservative justices step down, then I wouldn't be that concerned. However, if Sandra Day O'Conner or a liberal justice stepped down, I would be going in panic attack mode.

[Mattforclark]

4. panic attack...

Stevens and O'Conner are both real possibilities.

Check out the ages -

[Mattforclark]

3. It is unlikely

that anyone will retire right before the election... But it is possible. If Bush wins re-election, expect to see some of the republican justices go. Probably Rehnquist and/or O'conner sometime soon...

That is one of the reasons that we must win next year. The SC is due for some retirements; this court is the longest serving in the SC's history.

[Mattforclark]

5. Up

I think this issue is important enough to be on the radar screen...

[Jacobin]

6. One or two may croak in the next five years.

[SheilaT]

7. What's truly amazing is that

none of them has retired so far. Sandra Day O'Connor was supposed to have been quite irritated on election night 2000 when it looked like Gore would win, because she wanted to retire and of course wanted her replacement selected by a Republican president. I've not seen any comment or speculation anywhere as to why she's still happily chugging away as Justice.

[politicat]

8. I hate to say this after her scandalous Bush V. Gore vote, but...

whoever reported that may have gotten it wrong. She may have been irritated about something else; about the closeness of the election, about the way it was being handled.... or something else entirely or

it might have been misreported entirely.

She would have quit by now if she really wanted to and * was her guy. The one thing she has always been whether I agree with her or not is tough minded and stubborn to a fault. (And sometimes that's been on our side - she's not entirely scary.)

It's some of the others that are far more worrying. (And just because they're not very, very old doesn't mean they couldn't die. Even people in the best of health sometimes die young....)

Politicat

[SheilaT]

9. Yeah, I long ago

came to the conclusion that the story of what she supposedly said probably wasn't true. But it's quite interesting that there's been almost no follow-up in the media, not even shortly after Bush was installed in the WH.

[AntiCoup2K4]

10. Or could it be that Sandy originally DID plan to retire when Junior was..

..selected, but then was actually appalled by his agenda? Some Republicans are, for one reason or another, opposed to all or part of what this Fraudministration has done.

She certainly didn't walk the party line on some of the more recent cases.

[elperromagico]

11. Well, she's pro-choice

and pro-gay rights, IIRC. Bush's expressed desire to curtail both might have been enough to bring out the stubborn mule in Justice O'Connor.

I think she realizes that if she retires now, Bush will appoint a pro-life, anti-gay rights justice... and whatever work she's done will be destroyed by Bush and a compliant court. I dunno...