Justice O'Connor

Manifesto

Well, as I'm sure everybody has heard by now, Justice O'Connor has retired from the Supreme Court.

This brings a great deal of conflicting opinions for me personally. Justice O'Connor represented the dead center of the Court, along with Justice Kennedy. To get anything done, either side needed her opinion (or that of Kennedy). And O'Connor, by all accounts a terrific Justice and attorney, always left me with the feeling that she wanted to make everybody happy. Even when she didn't side with the conservative members of the Court, she left in her opinions a certain wishy-washy-ness, a certain equivocation, that left the door a little bit ajar for a more conservative Justice, some time in the future, to just blast open and, using some of the logic used by O'Connor, destroy the thing she was trying to save with her equivocation. Her opinions always left me wanting more.


For her to leave now, leaves us all on court watch. I won't babble on here about the various ills that will befall this great court now that she is gone and in light of Bush's likely successor.

I will say this about the successor decision. First, do you think that Lieberman or any of the other Dems that caved on the filibustering of Bush's last group of horrible nominees thought that such an important argument would come so quickly. I'm sure they assumed that if Rehnquist retired, as expected, it wouldn't be that big a deal because it would be impossible to find a Justice more conservative than Rehnquist. But now they are in sort of a pickle, aren't they. It will be interesting to see what they do. Assuming the nominee is in the radical conservative mold, I would hope that the Dems pay this like a bareknuckle street fight and, if they lose, use it in the next election. I can see the ads now, "[Republican Representative] voted to confirm [X] who doesn't believe in the right to privacy. If [X], you wouldn't be able to buy contraceptives or enjoy the right to make personal health care decisions. Etc."

Second, I wonder if this is part of a grand strategy by Rehnquist and O'Connor. E.g. if Rehnquist retires soon as well, it is possible that Republicans may make a grand bargain. Give us a conservative and we'll give you a more moderate "compassionate conservative." I can't imagine that the Bushies would do this, but this could get some traction from the Senate.

And finally, does Bush appoint a woman? Will there be pressure to do so? There is a legacy for Bush to think about. It'll at least be interesting to watch.