by TChris

As a matter of priority, the death of the Chief Justice is dwarfed by the urgent need to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Come Tuesday, senators should table all other action in favor of managing a crisis that seems beyond the competence of Homeland Security. The confirmation hearing of John Roberts should await a less pressing time, and neither the president nor the Senate should consider Rehnquist’s replacement until the public health crisis confronting the gulf coast has been resolved.

Some will argue that Rehnquist’s death requires the immediate confirmation of Judge Roberts. Not so. Only six justices are needed for a quorum. The seven sitting justices are capable of carrying on the Court’s business. They may decide not to decide cases until an eighth or ninth vote is available, a procedure the Court’s rules would permit. In some cases, the seven may have the five votes that would arguably render an eighth or ninth vote superfluous. While the Court benefits from the collegial debate that a full Court can provide, the sitting justices are capable of deciding which cases would benefit and which would likely be unaffected by an additional vote or two.

posted by Last Night in Little Rock

Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club, who fervently prayed for vacancies on the Supreme Court, when not asking the government to assassinate a foreign president, got his prayer answered on Saturday night with the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

It was not the vacancy he was hoping for.

Now the game of musical chairs begins. Justice Antonin Scalia, appointed by Reagan in 1986 will undoubtedly move to Chief. He's a known quantity, so confirmation by the Republican Senate will be quick.

Who, then, to replace Scalia?

Breaking from CNN, Chief Justice William Rehnquist has died.

• News articles: New York Times; Associated Press; AP update; CNN obituary; Bush Gets Chance to Appoint Chief Justice;

• Bio from Supreme Court Historical Society

• Nixon's Choosing Rehnquist (with live audio of Nixon and John Mitchell discussing the nomination)

• Key Decisions; Links to Rehnquist's opinions.

The last time there were double vacancies at the Supreme Court was 1971. Nixon appointed Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist to fill them.

• Politics and the Supreme Court

I'll probably be offline when the announcement is made, so here's a place to alert everyone with updates on the impending announcement and your reactions to it.

For the latest news, stay tuned to Scotus Blog and How Appealing.

Update: American Progress has just launched a new blog as an offshoot to Think Progress, called Clerks, written by former U.S. Supreme Court clerks, which will be devoted to issues surrounding Supreme Court nominations.

Since Republicans say all signs point to Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Brown Clement, let's take a look at her. What do you think?

From the Washington Post:

Clement was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to serve as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in 1991 and was elevated to her current post by the current President Bush in 2001.

Clement, a graduate of the University of Alabama and Tulane University Law School, worked as a lawyer in private practice in New Orleans for 16 years before beginning her tenure on the federal bench. She specialized in civil litigation involving maritime law, representing oil companies, insurance companies and the marine services industry in cases before federal courts. She is a member of the Federalist Society, an influential conservative legal organization.

The New York Times reports:

Administration officials said on Monday night that President Bush's selection process for a Supreme Court nominee was moving far faster than they expected, a signal that there could be a candidate within the next few days.

Just as I predicted earlier today:

Prediction: Bush will announce his Supreme Court pick earlier than scheduled - within the next few days - to deflect attention from this scandal. Will the furor erupting over RoveGate make him play nice and give us a mainstream moderate to placate us?

Now just cross your fingers and hope Bush decides he can't take any more heat and he'd rather scr*w the radical right than America.

by TChris

Of all the names floated as a possible nominee to the Supreme Court, John Cornyn's may be the most bizarre. Sen. Cornyn, after all, is the man who claimed to understand why judges have been targeted with violence:

"I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in - engage in violence."

As a NY Times editorial suggested, "when a second important Republican stands up and excuses murderous violence against judges as an understandable reaction to their decisions, then it is time to get really scared."

Even scarier is the thought that Cornyn might be considered a serious candidate for the nation's highest court. Cornyn's close ties to Karl Rove (who helped him win a position on the Texas Supreme Court) and his disregard for the separation of powers would set the stage for an interesting confirmation hearing, but his intemperate remarks about "unaccountable" judges and the violence they invite should be enough to keep him off the president's short list.

by TChris

Breaking News ... per CNN ... The Chief Justice announced today that he will stay on the job as long as his health permits ... with luck (although these are not the Chief's words) until President Bush surrenders his office.

Send your positive energy toward the Chief Justice, and drink to his health.

Update: "I'm not about to announce my retirement," he told The Associated Press.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been hospitalized with a fever.

Rehnquist was taken by ambulance to an Arlington, Va., hospital Tuesday night and was admitted for observation and tests, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. There was no immediate word on his condition Wednesday afternoon.

The Democrats met with Bush today and suggested a few Hispanic judges as Supreme Court nominees. One of them is 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edward Prado, whom I have often said would make the best choice.

Top Senate Democrats floated the names of potential candidates for the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a meeting with President Bush, describing them as the type of nominee who could avoid a fierce confirmation battle.

Several officials familiar with the discussion said Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Ed Prado of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, both of whom are Hispanic, were among the names mentioned as Bush met with key lawmakers from both parties to discuss the first high court vacancy in 11 years.

Draft Prado.

A radical right religious group, American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) sent out this e-mail today asking people to sign a petition opposing a consensus candidate:

...it is for moments like this that the ACLJ exists ... to help you make your voice heard - opposing the views of left-wing organizations like the ACLU and People For the American Way. To protect men and women of faith in America. To present your views in a manner that will have a lasting impact for you and your family.

So today, we invite you to join us in our nationwide campaign to encourage President Bush as he makes this most important decision in the days to come ... and to ask him to stand his ground ... by signing our Petition to the President for NO CONSENSUS.

Before suggesting that Alberto Gonzales is an acceptable Supreme Court nominee, I encourage you to read about his role as advisor to President Bush on clemency decisions. Objecting may be pointless, as TChris points out in the comments here, but that doesn't mean we have to give him a thumbs-up:

If he had a prosecutorial bias in a job that required him to provide a dispassionate and even-handed evaluation of a conviction and death sentence, it stands to reason that he would have a pro-prosecution bias if appointed to the Supreme Court. That alone should disqualify him, although it wasn't enough to stop the appointments of Rehnquist, Thomas, Kennedy, etc.

Don't miss the full Alan Berlow article in the Atlantic Monthly, available free here. He begins:

As the legal counsel to Texas Governor George W. Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales, now the White House counsel, and widely regarded as a likely future Supreme Court nominee, prepared fifty-seven confidential death-penalty memoranda for Bush's review. Never before discussed publicly, the memoranda suggest that Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise Bush of some of the most salient issues in the cases at hand

Nat Hentoff had this Village Voice column on Gonzales and the death memos. John Dean weighs in here.