Justice O’Connor to retire

[fedfem]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...wsbreaking-hed

By Jan Crawford Greenburg and Jeff Zeleny
Washington Bureau
Published July 1, 2005, 10:01 AM CDT


WASHINGTON -- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court and a moderate voice on such issues as abortion and the death penalty, said today she is retiring from the court.

"It has been a great privilege, indeed, to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms," O'Connor wrote in a letter to President Bush. "I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure."

O'Connor, 75, said she would leave before the start of the court's next term in October or whenever the Senate confirmed her successor.

The White House said the president would address the nation from the Rose Garden later today. While a Supreme Court retirement was widely anticipated this week, it was presumed that Chief Justice William Rehnquist would step down. O'Connor's decision threw an unexpected curve into the political fight to choose a new justice.

...

[lsbskins1]

Well, crap. I was hoping it would be Renquist. Bush could replace him with an ultra conservative and it would not have altered the ballance, but O'Conner is a serious swing vote and with her going, man the line in clean and drawn in the sand. You guys ready for the shit that is going to hit the fan very soon?

[Gorgo]

I hear he's going to appoint Pope Ratzinger.

[tinybear]

O'Connor was a Reagan appointee, if I remember correctly, but she was never a hardline conservative.

[gr8fuldaniel]

Quote by: Gorgo I hear he's going to appoint Pope Ratzinger.

Anybody seen Manuel Noriega?

[jose]

is this the same judge who voted to stop the Florida recount, that cleared the way for George W. Bush to win the 2000 presidential election.?

[tinybear]

The very one.

[belverron]

I hope this is the only judge he can appoint. I've worried about it.

[tinybear]

Why are you worried?

[tinybear]

What about them?

[jose]

like this one?
WASHINGTON -- It was not merely a leak from the normally leak-proof Bush White House. For more than a week, a veritable torrent has tipped Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as President Bush's first nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. It has sent the conservative movement into spasms of fear and loathing.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/r...20050627.shtml

[gr8fuldaniel]

You can start with the majority of his cabinet. Those who signed the PNAC which declared America "needs" a "New Pearl Harbor" to drum support for a war in Middle East. This was signed by the war cabinet BEFORE 911. Sounds like conspiracy to commit mass homicide, to me.
He also appointed:
Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General---A guy that declared the Geneva Convention "Quaint" endoses torture.
Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State-- You have to have integrity for it to be impugned.
Senator Barbara Boxer called her a liar at Senate confirmation hearing:

"And I personally believe -- this is my personal view -- that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth. And I don't say it lightly, and I'm going to go into the documents that show your statements and the facts at the time."

Among others

[Prometheus]

This retirement is going to bring the rep/dem judge comprimise crumbling down.

The dems had better shine up thier filibuster - cause they are going to need it!

[Mr.Vicchio]

any way, not withstanding gr8's inability to discuss anything to do with Bush without spasming into childish rants....

This is a shocker, I don't think many saw her stepping down, and there is still plenty of time for another to do so asid ethe Chief Justice.

BTW Gr8, I know why you don't like Rice, she's black and Conservative. Can't have that now can we?

[gr8fuldaniel]

LINK No, not Gonzales! Robert Novak June 27, 2005 WASHINGTON -- It was not merely a leak from the normally leak-proof Bush White House. For more than a week, a veritable torrent has tipped Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as President Bush's first nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. It has sent the conservative movement into spasms of fear and loathing. More....

It wouldnt surprise me a bit. Did you see the way bush always looks at Gonzalez? He is queer for him. Watch for that look next tiime you see them in the same room.
Odd that the "culture of death" is anti-abortion but Gonzo isnt. The cons hate the guy while bush fawns over him.
Gonzo loves to kill.
Hear the one about the convict whose attorney kept falling asleep during the trial, but they gave the guy the death penalty, actually carried it out too. Guess what? Its not a joke and it was Gonzo who told told bush not to stay the execution.
How do you like em now?

[lsbskins1]

Mr. V-

I guess you only dislike Ted Kennedy because he is rich and liberal. Can't have that now, can we?

Maybe you have more substatial reasons (like being complete ideological opposites) and maybe those who don't like Rice have more substantial reasons as well...

[Mr.Vicchio]

No isbinksi, I hate Ted cause he's a schmuck and proves it over time.

[belverron]

That was his point, Vicchio....

[Jack]

Is there going to be anything left the Republicans do not have control over after this appointment? So much for a two party system. There goes checks and balances. Oversight will become a joke. Who will keep the keepers?

[belverron]

If one of them goes too far, there's always impeachment. Only one justice of the U.S. Supreme Court has been impeached so far, however, and he was acquitted.