Courts, Politics, Religion, Supreme Court, Uncategorized

Justice Stevens Declares That He Will Resign During Obama’s Term

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has stated that he “will surely” retire while President Barack Obama is still in office — leaving open only whether he will retire this year or wait later in Obama’s term.

The likelihood is that Stevens will announce his retirement soon. Waiting until next year could throw the nomination into doubt with the mid-term elections approaching. Obama may also feel less able to appoint a solid liberal as he approaches his second term. Obama was criticized by some liberals for his appointment of Sonia Sotomayor, who ruled with the conservatives on the Second Circuit on a number of important cases. Waiting until next year would decrease the chances of a strong liberal nomination and could imperil confirmation given Obama’s failing popularity in the polls and resurgent GOP campaigning.

Stevens was nominated to the court by Republican President Gerald R. Ford in 1975 and is the seventh-longest-serving justice with more than 34 years on the court. He is also the second oldest justice to sit on the Court — after Oliver Wendell Holmes.

For the full story, click here.

93 thoughts on “Justice Stevens Declares That He Will Resign During Obama’s Term”

  1. bdaman,

    There is a difference between an actual argument evolving to take over a thread and trollery designed to obfuscate and/or mislead.

  2. Sometimes that just happens Mr. Treacy look at the 120 percent thread.

  3. Obama has produced his official birth certificate. It meets the definition of “birth certificate” in the United States Code, codified as a note following Title 5, United States Code, section 301 (5 U.S.C. 301 nt.):
    http://law.justia.com/us/codes/title5/5usc301.html

    It would constitute a valid birth certificate under all of the proposed bills requiring presidential candidates to produce birth certificates. It is a public document of the State of Hawaii, and is entitled to full faith and credit under the Constitution. The chief of vital statistics has issued an official statement that the state records show that Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural born citizen.

    The so-called lieutenant colonel is a moron and a disgrace to the uniform. The so-called major Cook tried this tack in Georgia, and lost. His lawyer, Taitz, left him high and dry by neglecting his appeal. Taitz was fined $20,000 by the court, and the fine was upheld on appeal. Over sixty eight – yes, 68 – lawsuits have been ruled on so far, AND IN EVERY ONE THE BIRTHERS HAVE LOST.

    American Patriot Foundation?

    According to DC Corporation records, the registered agent for the American Patriot Foundation, Inc. is D.C. lawyer John David Hemingway. Lawyer Hemenway was sanctioned by the District Court for frivolous filings. Out of respect for his age, Hemenway was spared any punishment except for a reprimand, seemingly in the expectation that he would change his ways.

    But no. Hemingway appealed. The sanction was just upheld on appeal. Now he is flogging Lakin

    BVM has posted here for years, and has never revealed his or her identify. Why should anyone give BVM any credence?

    This little tag team of BVM and BDM has tied up a lot of threads before. I am posting this over at the latest Taitz thread.

    I hope that the discussion is continued over there where it belongs out of respect for Professor Turley’s selections of topics for discussion.

    http://jonathanturley.org/2009/10/13/attorney-orly-taitz-fined-20000-for-frivolous-birther-litigation/#comment-123742

  5. Kyl is just another of a long line of Republican hypocrites in the Senate. Obama should choose the most progressive candidate as possible and name the person immediately after Stevens announces his retirement. Just tell the nominee to answer every question like Roberts and Alito. The truth doesn’t matter anymore. At least not to Republicans.

  7. GingerBaker.

    I too am perplexed as to why Obama might not wish to appoint a person who would bring a bit more balance.

    This is one of the things that constantly bugs me about Obama and I “miss” about Bush.

    Let me explain. Bush “won” both his elections amid much controversy and bad feeling. Both victories were narrow ones.
    Yet, instead of being bi-partisan consiliatory, he chose to run your country as if he had won both elections by a landslide. And hells bells! it worked for him.

    So now we have Obama, with a clear majority and an opposition party that point blank refuses to play ball in any way shape or form, seeking to run the country as if he won the election by a gnats whisker.

    Hurts to say it, but here’s a thing that Obama could learn from Bush.

  8. Bdaman,

    I’m waiting to see you display your intellectual honesty with regard to ‘climategate’. (That’s a challenge, in case you missed it…)

  10. Bdaman,

    This guy is far from brilliant – he’s throwing away his career and I’ll bet he gets court-martialed and dishonorably discharged without seeing anything more than he could have found on the web. He sounds pretty stupid to me…

  11. BVM I beat you by a few days. I posted that over at the Orly thread.

    Update:

    A U.S. Army flight surgeon who posted a video indicating his complete rejection of all orders from the military unless Barack Obama documents his eligibility to occupy the Oval Office is now refusing an “unofficial” suggestion from the Army for a medical evaluation.

    “It is interesting this suggestion of a medical exam should arise now given he was only a couple of weeks from deployment and obviously judged to be fit for deployment with his bags packed.

    the controversy raises the prospect that the government may be unwilling to pursue a prosecution because of the possible ramifications – which could include a defense lawyer’s demand for a court-ordered discovery process that would target Obama’s historical documentation

    Even participants in a forum on the left-leaning Huffington Post website seemed to agree in part.

    “Freakin’ Brilliant!” said one. “They can’t court-martial him [without] the defense getting the judge to order the the (sic) birth-certificate be produced! Either Obama will have to produce or they can’t prosecute. Genius.”

    http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=135781

  12. “President Obama, I ask you to respect and uphold the Constitution. Be transparent and show your honesty and integrity. Release your original, signed birth certificate, if you have one, thus proving your birth on American soil, and thus assure the American people that you are lawfully eligible to hold the office of the presidency and serve as commander in chief of the Armed Forces.”

  13. C-Span says there have been 15 recess appointments to the Supreme Court, the first being John Rutledge, who was given a recess appointment to be Chief Justice by President George Washington in 1795. Eisenhower made three recess appointments, Earl Warren, William Brennan, and Potter Stewart.

  14. To Nal’s question “Can the President make a recess appointment to SCOTUS?” the answer is double “YES”:

    Per wiki, Chief Justice Earl “Warren received a recess appointment from Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 2, 1953, to a seat vacated by Fred M. Vinson; was officially nominated on January 11, 1954 and confirmed by the Senate on March 1, 1954, and received commission on March 20, 1954.”

  15. Buddha,

    Got a good laugh at the thought of you beating the mustache off of Bolton – I’d pay to see that! 😉

    mespo,

    I like your monkey-see, monkey-do idea (I’d throw Clarence Thomas in the mix, too). Then all we have to do is get cracking on some cloning and memory transfer technology (plus some tweaks to add some racial diversity) and we could have a court that would protect our civil liberties. I’d like to see someone try to get warrantless wiretapping through a SCOTUS with 5 Turley clones… Oh well, it’s probably not a good idea to start experimenting on the professor anyway – we might end up with a Franken-Turley or a zombie Turley or (worst of all) some evil conservative clone that would be to the right of Scalia…

  16. John Bolton and I look similar.

    He must be a cross dresser then. I have never ever seen him wear a little green suit and a funny green little hat, never. 🙂

  17. AY,

    Another one of Bush’s failed “appointments”.

    Karzai.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/04/karzai-slams-the-west-aga_n_524669.html

    Apparently he thinks we won’t kill him and replace him with someone more compliant rather than let him prop up the Taliban with opium profits (even further). Since he’s not paying off the Federal Government like the Saudis, that’s a really stupid bet given our country’s field intelligence operations.

    Or we just might arrest him as a terrorist. ha HA! Now that’s some humor.

    Which is EXACTLY what would have happened to Noriega if he’d been brought in today – the joke would have been even more at his expense.

  18. In fact, Obama needs to appoint a “liberal” to the court just to maintain the current 1 vote IM-balance.

  19. AY,

    Bolton is a perfect example of someone who should be unemployable. I wouldn’t appoint John Bolton to dog poop detail he’s such a confrontational jackass. If he worked at a corporation? HR would have had his ass fired long before he rose to the “Ambassadorial” level of employ.

    And I also guarantee that if he talked to me the way he’s been reported treating his support staff in the past? I’d have flat out beat the mustache off of him. A good old fashioned country ass whooping would fix a lot of what’s wrong with his shitty attitude. Don’t kill him. Don’t maim him. But just leaving him with the impression that words, like all actions, have consequences that can be painful. Like W’s painful actions in appointing someone who clearly has pathological aggression issues to be an ambassador.

  20. Nal,

    That is how that dickhead W got the bastard in at the UN when congress would not confirm him. There are more recess appointments made than most people realize. However, both partys’ are guilty of the same. Why I remember W’s so well is because John Bolton and I look similar. Some folks confused me (my looks) for him. I will grant you I could at one time be rather nasty, but it was only on occasion. I am unsure if he can tell the difference between a rectal and oral thermometer.

    http://www.monitor.net:16080/monitor/0508a/copyright/boltonappointed.html

    “Both Republican and Democratic presidents have made recess appointments, which circumvents the Senate’s authority to confirm nominees, when they could not overcome delays. President George W Bush made more than 170 such appointments in his two-term presidency. President Bill Clinton made nearly 140.”

    http://www.japantoday.com/category/world/view/obama-makes-15-recess-appointments

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