I often hear people use this argument, but I'm not sure I buy it. Won't the Justices just wait until a President of their preferred ideology is in power before retiring?
Justice Ginsburg is only 79 -- both John Paul Stevens and Oliver Wendell Holmes retired when they were 90.
Edit: It looks like Ginsburg has expressed her desire to retire at 82 (in 2015), so unless she changes her mind, it will matter.
Comments
I often hear people use this argument, but I'm not sure I buy it. Won't the Justices just wait until a President of their preferred ideology is in power before retiring?
Justice Ginsburg is only 79 -- both John Paul Stevens and Oliver Wendell Holmes retired when they were 90.
Edit: It looks like Ginsburg has expressed her desire to retire at 82 (in 2015), so unless she changes her mind, it will matter.
Ginsburg was treated for pancreatic cancer three years ago.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/st...
> Won't the Justices just wait until a President of their preferred ideology is in power before retiring?
For the 70+ year olds on the court, that's not always up to them. If it was, the ideological makeup of the court would essentially never change.