Now that President Bush has nominated John Roberts to become Chief Justice, we are all wondering whether Justice O'Connor will return for the fall session. You might remember that Justice O'Connor's resignation was to be effective upon the "nomination and confirmation of my successor." John Roberts was nominated, but will never be confirmed as Justice O'Connor's successor. And President Bush will not nominate another candidate prior to Roberts' confirmation. Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSblog suggests a possible outcome:
As things stand, Justice O'Connor will return to the Court. But that could change. Justice O'Connor's resignation follows the model of Thurgood Marshall's, which was similarly effective upon the confirmation of a successor. But when Justice Thomas's confirmation was delayed, Marshall submitted a second resignation letter leaving the Court effective immediately. Marshall (unlike O'Connor) was sick and largely unable to perform the duties of office, but nothing would prevent Justice O'Connor from taking the same step of accelerating her departure from the Court.
As always, for all things relating to the Supreme Court, check out The Volokh Conspiracy.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345157d569e200d834557bd053ef
Links to weblogs that reference Roberts for Chief ... The Fate of O'Connor?:
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
