ANOTHER OPENING, ANOTHER SHOW – AT 6:44 P.M. ET:  Justice John Paul Stevens, who tilts to the liberal side of the Supreme Court, has given a public hint as to his retirement plans:

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says he "will surely" retire while President Barack Obama is still in office, giving the president the opportunity to maintain the high court's ideological balance.

Stevens said in newspaper interviews on the Web Saturday that he will decide soon on the timing of his retirement, whether it will be this year or next. Stevens, the leader of the court's liberals, turns 90 this month and is the oldest justice.

His departure would give Obama his second nomination to the court, enabling him to ensure there would continue to be at least four liberal-leaning justices. The high court is often split 5 to 4 on major cases, with the vote of moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy often deciding which side prevails.

"I will surely do it while he's still president," Stevens told The Washington Post.

COMMENT:  Some will say that a Stevens retirement, followed by an Obama anointment, will not change the Court's ideological balance. 

Not necessarily true.  There are liberals, and then there are super-liberals.  Stevens is a liberal voice, but he's hardly a flamethrower.  My own sense is that Obama, who only needs a majority in the Senate to push through a nominee, dreams of a real ideologist on the bench.  Some of his lower-court appointments have been disturbing. 

Of course, if the GOP takes over the Senate in November – a long shot – all will be different.  Even if it doesn't, the tiny number of Democratic moderates who are left could block an extreme appointment, although the term "Democratic moderate" now seems like a contradiction-in-terms, given how most of that crowd caved during the health-care fight.

I'd expect another minority-group appointment, possibly an African-American, who would provide leftist balance to Clarence Thomas, whose existence as a human being the left barely recognizes.

April 3, 2010