John Paul the Great

I refer to Justice Stevens, not the late Pope.

Justice John Paul Stevens has announced his retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court. A moderate Republican jurist from Chicago, Justice Stevens has served thirty-five years and has taken a more liberal stand on judicial issues in recent years. He has been skillful in building support among his fellow justices on the side of the common interest in cases in which he's been in the majority and has issued stirring and forceful dissents in cases in which he's been in the minority. His dissent in Bush v. Gore - in which he declared the loser of the 2000 presidential election to be the American people - was a masterpiece.

So how long is thirty-five years? Dig this. When Stevens was appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975, cable news channels didn't exist, the Internet was a military communications system, and eight-track was the standard for home audiotape. There was home audiotape. Elton John was the hottest rock star on the planet, Jaws was in the movie theaters, Volkswagen had just introduced the Rabbit, and everybody laughed when Mary Richards tried to suppress her own laughter at Chuckles the Clown's funeral. CBS gave George Jefferson his own show and gave Thomas Jefferson a Bicentennial minute. Everyone thought the leading candidate for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination was a Chinese-American because he was constantly referred to as "Jimmy Who." And in Hawaii, a thirteen-year old boy named Barack Obama was reading comic books instead of constitutional theory. Pretty long time.

Now Obama, as President, gets to appoint a second Supreme Court justice. Already, people hoping he appoints someone who is as far to the left as Antonin Scalia is to the right are expecting to be disappointed. Obama doesn't want to spend a lot of political capital right now, so he's expected to make a safe choice for the Supreme Court seat, so he's likely to replace old John Paul with someone of even less consequence than George or Ringo.

Obama has, though, said he hopes to appoint a justice with empathy for the average person, a statement Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) took umbrage with on NBC's "Meet the Press" today. "I don't know what that means," Sessions said, insinuating that such a choice would reek of traditional left-wing class warfare and emphasizing that he hopes for a Supreme Court nominee who practices restraint and not judicial activism. Asked by Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) if he honestly thought the odious Citizens United decision on campaign finance reform was "restraint," Sessions replied that it was, as far as he saw it.

This is going to be a tough fight. A recently resurgent Republican party, unable to stop health care reform, promises to stop Obama's Supreme Court nominee even if it's a reliably moderate judge with mildly conservative leanings. Given the fact the GOP will say no to anyone, I advise Obama to appoint someone who makes the late liberal lion William O. Douglas - whom Stevens replaced in 1975 - look like a member of the Heritage Foundation. And should Obama get wobbly over that, I'd like to offer the wise advice that other John Paul of note always dispensed.

Be not afraid.