On April 20, 2010, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will turn ninety-years old. He may be the next Justice to retire. Below is a list indicating what year each of the other current Justices would retire if they chose to do so in their ninetieth year.
Antonin Gregory Scalia- 2026
Anthony McLeod Kennedy- 2026
Clarence Thomas- 2038
Ruth Bader Ginsburg- 2023
Stephen Gerald Breyer- 2028
John Glover Roberts, Jr.- 2045
Samuel Anthony Alito- 2040
Sonia Sotomayor- 2044
I think this demonstrates how entrenched the conservative bloc on the Court is, and how hard it will be to break out of the 5-4 deadlock we’ve seen in recent years.
it also demonstrates that if everyone “pulls a stevens”, obama may get one more supreme court appointment (stevens), but then there won’t be another one for a really long time–like 4 terms from now (the 2021-2024 term to replace ginsburg)
luckily, it’s quite common for justices to leave the bench before they turn 90. and even if they want to stick around that long, most people still don’t survive their 80s. there’s a fair chance that by 2030 none of the current justices will still be on the court.
I predict one of the conservatives will take an early retirement. And for some reason I think it would be Justice Scalia.
Might be for health related issues. Scalia doesn’t look like he gets a ton of exercise.
More time for him to go hunting with Dick Cheney.
Yikes… speaking of potential health related issues…
Not all of them will last until they are 90.
Expect this order, first three possibly before end of 2012; all possibly before end of 2016:
Ginsberg
Scalia
Kennedy
Thomas
Breyer
Why would Scalia retire any time soon?
yeah, i’m with booman. i don’t think there’s any chance that scalia will willingly retire until there’s an R in the white house.
If Holder goes after Bush Administration…i.e. Cheney and his hit squad. The case would probably make it to the Supreme Court and rather than recuse himself Scalia would just resign. (Fantasy Theory)
Reality Theory, I get the impression that Justice Scalia would like to earn more money. He writes books, but can only do limited promotion of them.
l agree. l don’t think scalia will resign, he’s too much of an ideologue. he’ll die with his robes on.
other than stevens, l would posit the most likely resignations in the short term would be ginsburg, for health reasons, and quite possibly thomas. he doesn’t seem to be in to it, as it were, and, frankly, he’s just keeping the seat warm.
Who said willingly.
People get old, and get sick.
SCOTUS justices must be the healthiest people in this country. They never die young. At least none in the last half century+.
sample bias is a factor here. no one gets nominated until they’re already in the late-40s or 50s with no serious health problems.