The new hot judicial gossip making the rounds is that liberal justice John Paul Stevens may retire next year. The clues? He’s only hired one clerk for the term starting in October 2010 instead of his usual four (they plan ahead), and retired justices are allowed to have one clerk to do their dry cleaning, we guess. Plus, at 89, he’s very old, even by Supreme Court standards. His departure likely wouldn’t change the ideological makeup of the court very much, since President Obama will appoint someone with similarly liberal leanings, but at the very least it’ll provide us with another fun round of political grandstanding, and, if we’re lucky, maybe some hysteric racial rhetoric.
Justice Stevens Slows His Hiring At High Court [AP via HuffPo]
