Friday, April 09, 2010
Justice Stevens Steps Down
Today, Justice John Paul Stevens announced that he will be retiring from the Supreme Court. Though he is nearly ninety years old, Justice Stevens is still one of the most intellectually active of the justices. Last week, in the Dillon arguments, he was his typical vigorous self, taking on both counsel with equal vigor and adding notes of sharp wit to the discussion.
January 5, 2005, the Booker decision came out, striking down the mandatory sentencing guidelines. Like everyone else in criminal law, I raced through the opinions when midway through the second Stevens opinion I was stopped cold by footnote 15. There, in black and white, he quoted several lines of an article I had written. It was the highest compliment I had ever received-- that a Justice not only had read my work, but chosen to include my words within his own.
He is leaving while he is on top of his game, and that is a wise choice typical of his career.
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We will miss him! Probably my favorite anecdote about Justice Stevens was what he said about his joining the Navy on Dec. 6, 1941. He said something to the effect of "we all know how the enemy reacted to that."
He had such a large persona, was so likeable, and is the last of his era. It was sad seeing him have trouble reading his dissent to Citizens United. While we all expect President Obama to nominate another liberal justice, the liberal wing will lose their senior associate justice and an intellectual giant. I hope that the President can nominate someone that can pace Chief Justice Roberts in longevity and intellect so we can have some parity for some time.
He had such a large persona, was so likeable, and is the last of his era. It was sad seeing him have trouble reading his dissent to Citizens United. While we all expect President Obama to nominate another liberal justice, the liberal wing will lose their senior associate justice and an intellectual giant. I hope that the President can nominate someone that can pace Chief Justice Roberts in longevity and intellect so we can have some parity for some time.
I've got some free time coming up in August if the SCOTUS needs a sub until they can get their roster back up to speed in the next draft.
Hopefully they'll nominate one of those fair-minded and objective conservative justices, and not some Nixon/Ford-appointed liberal activist who legislates from the bench.
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