Tough Morning for Justice Stevens

[usregimechange]

"His words about the changed court reminded spectators not only of a passing era in campaign finance law but of all that Stevens had witnessed over his nearly 35 years on the bench..." (US Today).


It's rare, and always dramatic to watch, when a Supreme Court justice reads from a dissent on the bench. On Thursday, when Justice John Paul Stevens read at length from his stinging 90-page dissent in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, it was also a little painful to watch.

For more than 20 minutes, Stevens spoke haltingly as he read from a summary of the dissent, a task he'd ordinarily breeze through. The 89-year-old justice seemed off his game, tripping on some words, getting stuck on others. At one point, he kept mispronouncing the word "corporation" as something like "corpo-russian," and he could not quite get it right.

As CBS News Court correspondent Jan Crawford noted on her blog with similar observations, "Maybe it was just a bad day, and Lord knows we’ve all had those." And the written product is more important than how it was read aloud. But with a justice who is said to be on the verge of retiring at the end of this term, and in a case of such high impact, it was hard not to notice Stevens' tough morning.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2010/01/tough-morning-for-justice-stevens.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. It cannot be easy, holding up against all these conservative

Justices...

Esp. at his age.

I admire his courage.

And his steadfastness.

[usregimechange]

2. Good staywithitness for sure...

[roguevalley]

21. he and ruth are staying with illness and disappointment because they

love this country. they should be home enjoying the remaining years of their lives but they are there for us and I love them. Bless him. He reminds me of my Papa.

[elleng]

3. Damn.

'Better,' tho:

Meanwhile, a loud banging noise from the bench all but drowned him out. That's true. But Justice Anthony Kennedy fared no better reading from his majority opinion beforehand, tearing through the first part of his summary, then losing his place and stumbling through the holding. If Citizens United really represents the moment at which the Roberts court allows itself to finally give voice to its full-throated judicial activism, it's not clear Anthony Kennedy managed much more than a vocal mumble. He looked like he'd have preferred to have been reading his dissent from a soapbox. Or maybe from a crouch underneath the bench. Stevens haltingly worked his way through all five of his objections to the majority's holding today. Kennedy barely gulped out the holding itself. . .

Even former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist once warned that treating corporate spending as the First Amendment equivalent of individual free speech is "to confuse metaphor with reality." Today that metaphor won a very real victory at the Supreme Court. And as a consequence some very real corporations are feeling very, very good.


http://www.slate.com/id/2242208/

[usregimechange]

4. You can say that again

[elleng]

5. I'm afraid I will, but check my 'edit,'

and then lets look at Kennedy's age. Replace both, maybe? (I shouldn't say such, I know.)

[TexasProgresive]

16. Why say such a thing?

They can't be "replaced" unless they retire or die. So why waste your energy saying replace them?

[elleng]

17. Doesn't take much energy for me to 'say' such.

Sorry if its too much for you.

[Truth2Tell]

6. Real American hero right there.

:patriot:

Edit to add: Really great video interview of Justice Stevens with Brian Lamb of C-SPAN doing a tour of his office and talking about his career:

http://supremecourt.c-span.org/Video/JusticeOwnWords/SC_Jus_Stevens.aspx

[otohara]

7. 89 And Off His Game

Imagine that....
Reading a 90 page document and messing up once in a while at the age of 89.

[Truth2Tell]

8. not only that,

a stinging, brilliant and historic 90 page document which he himself wrote. at 89. But he mis-pronounced corporation, so he must be losing it.

[harkadog]

23. What makes you think he wrote it?

Law clerks write the draft opinions and the Justices tweak them.

[Truth2Tell]

24. Watch the video in my post #6.

Unlike the other Justices, Stevens writes the first draft of all of his own opinions.

[TxRider]

9. I hope I'm as much on my game at 89

[Mojorabbit]

10. What a wonderful photo

the lighting is great. Bless his heart.

[Pab Sungenis]

11. If he passes, then Obama better put a REAL liberal in his seat.

Putting anyone to the right of Stevens in that chair would be as deadly as giving it to Robert Bork.

[nosmokes]

14. I hope you don't have any money riding on Obama doing the right thing

for anybody but his corporate constituency.

[cali]

15. yeah, the corpocrats love Sonia Sotomayor

and it's not only Sotomayor. His appointments to the federal bench DO inspire confidence. I have plenty of criticisms of Obama from healthcare reform to Afghanistan. His judicial appointments are not an area where he deserves criticism.

but then you actually have to be a wee bit informed and fair minded to know that, dear.

[nosmokes]

20. that was before he sold his soul or

whatever audacious organ big pharma now has in it's vice, along w/ whatever big ag has control of that goes along nicely w/ with the organ that the finance industry has. I'm fair minded cali, dear. I also have my eyes wide open.

Or do you wanna try and peddle me a dog turd in a bottle and call it perfume?

[Pab Sungenis]

19. Never said I did.

Just said he'd better if he cares about this country.

[liquid diamond]

25. Good luck getting him or her confirmed by this senate.

[JDPriestly]

12. He must have been very angry, very upset with the majority opinion.

I wonder what O'Connor is thinking now. She could have stayed on the Court just a little longer.

The Republican Party is no longer the party that she used to belong to.

[ChicagoSuz219]

13. I'd be tripping over those particular words, too! n/t

[panzerfaust]

18. Bless Him

We will not see his like again.

[Terra Alta]

22. he is a good man.

Unfortunately, I don't think he will be around much longer. God bless him.