Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has stepped down, after 24 years.
O’Connor, 75, was appointed by President Reagan in 1981 and is considered a moderate conservative on the high court and often cast the pivotal swing vote in important cases.
She dismissed the label, telling CNN recently, “That’s something the media has devised as a means of writing about the court, and I don’t think that has a lot of validity.”
The cries of DOOOOOOM! (and VICTOREEEEEE!) are already out there (and have been for months, with Rehnquist ailing). I suspect the coming summer will, in its own way, rival last fall’s Presidential campaign for vitriol. There’s some justification for that, but I have no doubt that the rhetoric will take on tones of Anyone But Bush’s Nominee. Bush could nominate Jane Fonda and she’d would be labelled as a Troglodyte Misogynist Triumphalist Fascist Right-Wing Extremist Zealot by the Left. (He could also nominate Jerry Falwell and be accused of Selling Out To The Democrats by some on the Right as well, but that’s less likely.)
I’ll hold off on voicing specific concerns until I hear who the nominee is. I have little doubt that I’ll be pleased by said nominee, but there should be some range between “pleased” and “convinced the nation is DOOOOOOMED,” and assuming those are the only two alternatives would be … well as shallow and reactionary as some folks expect the nominee to be.
Stay tuned (but keep the volume down low).
Thank Ghu for black humor and sarcasm.
I found it (blackly) amusing this morning to note the headlines that conservatives are resisting the strong hints that Bush might nominate Gonzalez — not for the reasons that the liberals would opposed the nomination, but because Gonzalez is “soft” on abortion.