Rumors are flying concerning who, if anyone, will resign from the Supreme Court between now and the start of the next term. The most common belief is that Rehnquist and possibly O'Connor will step down over the summer. I've also heard that it will only be O'Connor. One rumor that's come out of left field (in more ways than one) is that Ruth Basder Ginsburg will step down around Labor Day due to health problems.
Whoever steps down, the upcoming confirmation battles should be fascinating to watch. Personally, I'd love to see the president nominate Miguel Estrada to fill the vacancy, but I don't think it'll happen. It's a shame, really. After having his name dragged through the mud for over two years, he'd decided he had better things to do and withdrew himself from consideration. If he hadn't, I suspect he would have gone through in the great cop-out of '05 by a certain group of 14 senators who claim to value collegiality over all else, even if they really did it for the good publicity. Of course, that's not entirely fair to Mike DeWine and Lindsey Graham, who reportedly pushed the deal through on orders from Bill Frist because they weren't sure how Specter was going to vote.
No comments:
Post a Comment