O'Connor Urged to Reconsider Retirement

[irishgrl]

O'Connor Urged to Reconsider Retirement

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 14, 7:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Four female senators called Thursday for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to stay on the court and try for chief justice if the ailing William Rehnquist steps down.

In a letter to O'Connor, Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Barbara Boxer of California asked the nation's first female justice to consider staying on the high court if Chief Justice Rehnquist relinquishes the top spot.

Rehnquist was discharged Thursday after two nights in the hospital for treatment of a fever. O'Connor announced her retirement on July 1, but has made it conditional on a replacement being confirmed.

"We urge you to reconsider your resignation and return to the Supreme Court to serve as chief justice, should there be a vacancy," the senators said in the Thursday letter.

The four senators also said they will "strongly recommend" to
President Bush that O'Connor become the next chief justice if Rehnquist steps down.

"We believe such a history-making nomination by the president would demonstrate leadership that unites Americans around the shared values of liberty, the rule of law and the preservation of our constitutional freedoms," they said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and top Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont first publicly stoked speculation about a possible O'Connor candidacy for chief justice on Sunday.

"I think it would be quite a capping to her career if she served for a time, maybe a year or so," Specter said.

Given the praise O'Connor has received since her retirement announcement, she would be a lock to be confirmed as chief justice, Leahy said. "I think it would be a very doable thing," he said Sunday.

Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., said Thursday that he planned to ask Bush's Supreme Court nominee several pointed questions, including whether he thinks
Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized abortion, was correctly decided and whether it should be revisited.

Schumer, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, argued in a speech to the Center for American Progress and the American Constitution Society that Bush's team will probably conduct an ideological examination of the prospective nominees in private before sending a candidate to the Senate.

"If a nominee's ideology, judicial philosophy, constitutional views are central considerations in a president's decision to nominate, as they inevitably are, and if such questioning is going on in private, I dare say that the American people have an absolute right to have those questions answered publicly," Schumer said.

Conservatives are urging Bush to fill the court's first vacancy in 11 years with a solid opponent of abortion. That would shift the court to the right on abortion and other social issues. Liberals are resigned to getting a conservative justice from Bush, but hope the president picks a moderate who might not be as rigid on abortion rights.

Several recent polls have found approximately six in 10 Americans agree with, or oppose overturning, the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion.

Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, in a Senate speech, said Democrats are just setting up an attempt to make "political hay out of the candidate's personal views."

"Just because some members may try to ask these questions, it doesn't mean the president's nominee should answer them. In accordance with long tradition, they should not answer them," Cornyn said.

Meanwhile, the seven Republicans and seven Democrats who brokered a deal to avoid a conflict over Bush's lower court nominees met for the first time in two months on Thursday. The 14 senators signed a pact in May not to filibuster judicial nominees except in extraordinary circumstances. At the same time, they agreed to oppose attempts by GOP leaders to change filibuster procedures.

They also called for Bush to consult with the Senate.

The group "applauded the outreach effort that is going on and the consultation that is occurring and is suggesting that that kind of consultation needs to continue," said Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.

Yet ANOTHER wrinkle in the Supreme Court drama....