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f President Bush chooses Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, that might well doom the GOP Senate incumbents, those on the religious right say, by infuriating the party's fervent, evangelical grassroots, Newsweek reports in the current issue. "If the president is foolish enough to nominate Al Gonzales, what he will find is a divided base that will take it out on candidates in 2006," says Manuel Miranda, who heads a coalition of conservative groups called Third Branch Conference. A former legal counsel to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Miranda went on to threaten...

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President Bush is spending the weekend at Camp David. He will travel to Morganstown, West Virginia, on Monday to participate in 4th of July celebrations there. The First Lady has been away from Washington recently. However, she will be traveling with the President to Europe this coming week. Our beloved Dubya will mark his 59th birthday on July 6. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT! And a rousing HAPPY 229TH BIRTHDAY to our great nation. Laura Bush to visit Tanzania 2005-07-01 07:09:58 By Guardian Reporter US First Lady Laura Bush will visit Tanzania later this month. She...

This week marks a historic occasion, not only for the U.S. Supreme Court, but for America -- the retirement announcement of our nation's first female Supreme Court justice. The process in the U.S. Senate for considering her successor should reflect the best of the American judiciary -- not the worst of American politics. Justice O'Connor has provided a voice of judicial restraint on a number of important issues on which the court was closely divided. Throughout her 24 years on the nation's highest court, Sandra Day O'Connor worked to restore common sense to our criminal justice system and foster due...

(CNSNews.com) - Liberal organizations reacted quickly and strongly to Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement on Friday, referring to her departure as creating "an ominous vacancy" that could lead to "terrible changes" on the U.S. Supreme Court. "The battle for the Supreme Court has begun," declared a release from NARAL Pro-Choice America that featured a picture of President George W. Bush. "Don't let his choice end yours. "Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement gives President Bush and the radical right the chance they've been waiting for to overturn Roe v. Wade," according to the group's website. "They're pulling out all the stops to...

When Robert Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1987, the Reagan White House was not prepared to fight effectively for his confirmation. Indeed, Bork was such a respected judge and admired legal scholar that President Reagan and his aides assumed Bork would have a relatively easy time winning Senate approval. He lost 58-42. In preparing now for a vacancy on the high court, the Bush White House has studied the Bork confirmation fight. And it has learned lessons it hopes will help when President Bush picks a nominee to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first justice to...

The Supreme Court ended its current term on Monday with more of a whimper than a bang. In the Ten Commandments cases, the justices further muddied the muddy waters of the First Amendment. In a Colorado case, they found no way to compensate a victim of grossly incompetent cops. They refused even to hear the appeal of two reporters who face prison for doing their job. Then they doffed their robes and departed for the summer. One is reminded of Oliver Cromwell's farewell to the Rump Parliament of 1653: "You have sat too long for any good you have done....

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Bill Kristol called it on O'Connor's retirement. Let's hope he is wrong about her replacement: President Bush will appoint Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to replace O'Connor. Bush certainly wants to put Gonzales on the Supreme Court. Presidents usually find a way to do what they want to do. As National Review put it: [T]he president has to know that conservatives, his supporters in good times and bad, would be appalled and demoralized by a Gonzales appointment. It would place his would-be successors in the Senate in a difficult position, forcing them to choose between angering conservatives by voting for Gonzales...

(CNSNews.com) - Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her resignation on Friday. She said she will stay on until her successor is named and confirmed. The White House said President Bush would make a statement in the White House Rose Garden sometime after 11 a.m., but press reports said he was not expected to nominate O'Connor's successor at that time. The timing of O'Connor's announcement, coming on a slow news day before the long holiday weekend, caught much of Washington by surprise; but for weeks, press reports have speculated that either O'Connor or Chief Justice William Rehnquist -- or...

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tracey Schmitt 202-863-8614 WASHINGTON - RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman issued the following statement on the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor:“As the first woman ever to serve on the United States Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor shattered the glass ceiling that existed in American jurisprudence. Over the past twenty-four years, her contributions to the nation's highest court will be remembered for her thoughtful, well-reasoned rulings on the difficult issues of the day. Her presence on the Court will never be replaced, but her seat must be filled and President Bush will work to put forth...

WASHINGTON -- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court and a key swing vote on issues such as abortion and the death penalty, said Friday she is retiring. O'Connor, 75, said she expects to leave before the start of the court's next term in October, or whenever 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...

WASHINGTON - Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Thursday dismissed growing criticism about the Supreme Court's use of international law in its opinions, saying it makes sense for justices to look at foreign sources when a point of law is unclear. O'Connor, a Reagan appointee, participated in a lively one-hour discussion at the National Archives with Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer. She said if there is no controlling U.S. precedent or the viewpoint of states is unsettled, "of course we look at foreign law." "This is much ado about nothing," she said in response to a question by moderator...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on Thursday dismissed growing criticism about the Supreme Court's use of international law in its opinions, saying it makes sense for justices to look at foreign sources when a point of law is unclear. O'Connor, a Reagan appointee, participated in a lively one-hour discussion at the National Archives with Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer. She said if there is no controlling U.S. precedent or the viewpoint of states is unsettled, "of course we look at foreign law." "This is much ado about nothing," she said in response to a question by...

Over the past several decades, we have gotten used to judges being above the law, so it was perhaps inevitable that we would now be asked to get used to the idea that judges are above criticism. In the wake of the Terri Schiavo case, where a Florida judge ignored Florida law and Congressional subpoenas, and where federal judges ignored Congressional legislation duly signed by the President, some people dared to suggest that judges had overstepped the bounds. Immediately there has been a firestorm of reaction by those who think it is just fine to have judges make social policy,...

Let's talk about the arguments that will be made, court cases cited, the sound bites, and votes in Congress. Let's talk about what's going to happen. Chief Justice Rehnquist isn't going to be around forever, and I'd bet a beer that this is his last court session. Then the president gets to nominate a replacement. That replacement is someone who votes just like Rehnquist did when it comes to religious freedom issues. The court remains much the same. It's late in the president's second term when Sandra Day O'Connor and one other justice decide that they'd rather have their replacements...

To resolve any concern that I would block pro-life judicial nominees, take a look at my record. I have consistently opposed any litmus test. I have backed that up by voting to confirm pro-life nominees including Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Anthony Kennedy. I led the fight to confirm Justice Clarence Thomas, which almost cost me my Senate seat in 1992. I have voted for all of President Bush's judicial nominees in committee and on the floor. The current controversy was artificially created by incorrect reporting. I never "warned" the president on...

In the current issue of the left-leaning The American Prospect, Lisbeth B. Schorr has an article entitled "The O'Connor Project." The title alludes to Justice Sandra O'Connor's opinion last summer upholding the use of racial preferences in university admissions, which she concluded by saying that she hoped the academic performance of young African Americans would improve enough so that, in 25 years, this kind of discrimination would no longer be called for. And so, asks Schorr — director of the Project on Effective Interventions at Harvard University — what is to be done in order to make O'Connor's hope come...

Some Republicans now say that affirmative action is here to stay, so the best we can do is to "contain" it. That means limiting affirmative action to blacks and American Indians. (Many Republicans have long felt that way, but some are now actually talking containment.) Containment is surrender. This ain’t the Cold War; this is the war for the Constitution. It’s also a low-intensity (increasingly, high-intensity) race war. But the containment strategy is worse than a straightforward surrender. For while GOP operatives intend all along to surrender for what they think is a fair price, they seek to deceive...

Courting International Law by Sandy Schulz Published 11/04/2003 Lost in the hoopla over the Supreme Court's decisions last term on affirmative action and gay rights is the development of a disturbing new legal trend, one hinted at by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in a speech last week. Increasingly, it seems, the Court is relying on international law and opinion as the basis for domestic legal decisions. For an institution that puts so much stock in precedence, this move is, well, unprecedented. Worse, it spells potential trouble down the road. In several of its highest-profile cases, the Court looked for guidance...