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Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would have preferred to stay on the Supreme Court for several more years until she was ill and "really in bad shape" but stepped down because of her ailing husband. O'Connor, 76, also says she accelerated her retirement announcement by at least a year because then-Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who was battling thyroid cancer, told her he was not ready to leave the court, according to a Newsweek interview released Sunday. "I was concerned about whether he had an intention to step down since his plans might have altered my own. It's hard for...

WILLIAMSBURG -- College of William and Mary officials removed a 2-foot-high gold cross from the altar of the Sir Christopher Wren Building chapel this week, in an effort to modify the historic chapel into a nondenominational space. The cross is now kept in a nearby storage closet, near communion wine bottles and other religious articles.

The 58-42 roll call by which the Senate voted to confirm Judge Samuel Alito as the 110th justice on the Supreme Court. On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to confirm Alito and a "no" vote was a vote against his confirmation. Voting "yes" were four Democrats and 54 Republicans. Voting "no" were 40 Democrats, one Republican [Chafee-RI] and one independent. [Roll call shown in comment].

The so-called Gang of 14 senators who brokered a deal on federal judicial nominees in May will meet again today and discuss the Supreme Court vacancy. But they will neither seek a leadership role on this issue yet nor expand their interest beyond judges, a key member of the group said yesterday. “We are not trying to emerge as a force or usurp leadership,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said at The Hill’s Policy and Politics breakfast. “Most senators are glad we averted [a filibuster] by coming together.” McCain commended the White House for reaching out to both sides of the...

... Bush would really like to name Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the Sandra Day O’Connor vacancy, but the events of the last few weeks have conspired against Gonzales. With Bush’s approval rating at 40 percent, he can’t afford to alienate his base of social conservatives. Bush promised them another Scalia or Thomas, unapologetic “originalists” who don’t invite a guessing game about where they stand on Roe. A strategist who has worked with conservative groups says, “If he named Gonzales, it would be the equivalent of his father reneging on taxes. It would be an event of that magnitude. He’d...

If the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor opened a gap at the ideological center of the Supreme Court, the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist removed the anchor of its right wing. Yet in what is suddenly a much more complex process of replacing not only O'Connor but also Rehnquist, President Bush has an opportunity to shore up the court's conservative bloc and entrench it. Rehnquist's replacement will probably serve for many years to come; if the new justice's views remain conservative over that time, it will mean the effective perpetuation of a Rehnquist-like vote on the court...

CNN Live Today July 1, 2005 KAGAN: All right. Panelists, we'll be back to you in just a moment. Interesting person to talk to on the phone right now. Robert Bork on the phone, somebody who got almost to the Supreme Court. The judge nominated in 1987, a nomination that did not work out in the way that Judge Bork, I think, you would have liked. Your comments today on Sandra Day O'Connor and her legacy on the court, please. JUDGE ROBERT BORK, FMR. SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Well, she's a very nice person, but she is -- as a justice,...

Dear Freepers, I NEVER ask for help on a poll. However, an online newspaper, the Shelbyville Times-Gazette in Shelbyville, TN, has posted a poll on a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Conner. They have several selections which might be of interest to some Freepers and would be a fun poll to "crash". Enjoy yourselves, it is found here: Click here.Thanks in advance.

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago Amid widespread rumors and speculation, senators are split on whether Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will join Sandra Day O'Connor in retirement and give President Bush multiple appointments to the Supreme Court. O'Connor announced plans to leave the high court two weeks ago and speculation is swirling about the future of the 80-year-old Rehnquist, who has thyroid cancer. Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said senators had discussed with O'Connor a scenario under which she might consider changing her mind if Rehnquist...

The first woman to serve as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court should have been the first woman to serve as the chief justice of the United States. Sandra Day O'Connor would have been a brilliant choice for that symbolic position for many legal and political reasons. At a time when the court specifically and the federal judiciary in general could use a jolt of public respect and support, O'Connor would have taken the reins as Lady Justice, one of the most well- known and culturally in-tune major-league judges in recent history. A grandmother who looks like one, and...

WASHINGTON - Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court and a swing vote on abortion as well as other contentious issues, announced her retirement Friday. A bruising Senate confirmation struggle loomed as President Bush pledged to name a successor quickly. "It has been a great privilege indeed to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms," the 75-year-old justice wrote Bush in a one-paragraph resignation letter. "I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure."

EXCERPTED: O'Connor, 75, said she will leave before the start of the court's next term in October, or when the Senate confirms her successor. There was no immediate word from the White House on who might be nominated to replace O'Connor. It's been 11 years since the last opening on the court, one of the longest uninterrupted stretches in history. O'Connor's decision gives Bush his first opportunity to appoint a justice. "This is to inform you of my decision to retire from my position as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, effective upon the nomination...

WASHINGTON - Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (news - web sites) extolled Wednesday the growing role of international law in U.S. courts, saying judges would be negligent if they disregarded its importance in a post-Sept. 11 world of heightened tensions. See link for rest of article

Keyes Urges Bush Not to Select O'Connor as Chief JusticeBy Jimmy MooreTalon NewsAugust 11, 2004SPARTANBURG, SC (Talon News) -- Former ambassador Alan Keyes, who officially accepted the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Illinois this week, is challenging President George W. Bush to resist the urge to appoint judicial nominees who do not "share our reverence for our Declaration and our Constitution."In a letter sent to members of The Declaration Alliance, a civic public policy and issues advocacy group that defends the original intent of the Founding Fathers, obtained by Talon News, Keyes warns that "pressure from Democrats and...

I have a sneaking sympathy for Dick Gephardt. Hitherto the Democratic Party's most reliably unexciting presidential candidate, the former House minority leader went bananas the other day and said if the Supreme Court did something he didn't like he'd sign an executive order overturning it. Several conservatives did a bit of pro forma huffin' an' a-puffin' about why this makes Gephardt unfit to be president. But, speaking personally, I can't see why rule by Dick-tat would be worse in principle than the present system, whereby the nation's course for the decades ahead is effectively set by executive orders from Sandra...

THE SUPREME COURT yesterday proclaimed that there is a constitutional right as well as a fundamental human right to engage in sodomy. The prevailing cultural winds are indeed blowing toward widespread public acceptance of this premise. So as it did with Roe v. Wade three decades ago, the court yesterday employed deliberately sloppy reasoning for the purpose of reaching a moral rather than a legal conclusion on a matter of constitutional law. The case involved two homosexual men who were arrested and imprisoned under a Texas law that forbade homosexual sodomy. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, ruled that...

HOPEFULLY SOME FREEPERS CAN GET DOWN THERE

An exchange of letters by Senate Democrats and the White House last week over their respective roles in Supreme Court appointments points to the prospect of a brutal fight when the next vacancy occurs. But, contrary to speculation, top administration officials do not expect any of the nine justices to retire before the 2004 election, The Hill has learned. Talk of a summer retirement emerged months ago as observers pondered whether Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 78, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 73, might want to give President Bush the chance to replace them with similarly conservative jurists before Bush next...

Golfweek is citing sources saying that Augusta National plans to announce Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as its first female member April 9.