Monday, March 15, 2010

What will the Supreme Court be like without Justice John Paul Stevens?

Jeffrey Toobin has a piece in the new New Yorker, What will the Supreme Court be like without Justice John Paul Stevens?.

"Ever since last fall, when it emerged that Stevens had hired only one law clerk for the next year, instead of his customary four, there has been growing speculation that he will soon retire. Since 1994, Stevens has been the senior Associate Justice and so has been responsible for assigning opinions when the Chief Justice is not in the majority. He has used that power to build coalitions and has become the undisputed leader of the resistance against the conservatives on the Court. ‘For those fifteen years, John Stevens has essentially served as the Chief Justice of the Liberal Supreme Court,’ Walter Dellinger, who was the acting Solicitor General in the Clinton Administration and is a frequent advocate before the Court, says. In Stevens’s absence, leadership of the Court’s liberals would fall, by seniority, to Ginsburg, but she is also elderly and has suffered from a range of health problems. Even if President Obama appointed a like-minded replacement for Stevens, that person, while taking his seat, would not fill his role."

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