Is There Something You'd Like to Tell Us, Justice Stevens?

by Clerquette

There has been some speculation, in the last few months, that Justice John Paul Stevens may be ready to trade in his formal leather throne on the Highest Bench in the Land for something a tad more ... BarcaLounge-y. Or Adirondack Chair-ish. Or pool float-ey. 

What's been fueling the rumors of JPS's yearning for a different seating arrangement? Well, as our colleagues at Above the Law reported back in September, Justice Stevens's hiring for OT 2010 has proceeded at a somewhat, er, leisurely pace: at last count, the Justice had exactly one law clerk in place for the '10 term. Of course, like our fabulous co-blogress, Article III Groupie -- who, in April of 2009 correctly predicted Justice Souter's retirement -- the superstars at ATL are rarely wrong, and are thus entitled to substantial deference.

Then, just yesterday, another esteemed Courtwatcher raised the issue of JPS's potential retirement -- based on her observation of His Honor's uncharacteristically tentative performance at Thursday's session (during which the landmark decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm'n was announced, in case you happen to have spent the last two days in a dark, Interweb-less hole). According to Jan Crawford, 

Stevens spent a good 20 minutes this morning reading a summary of his scathing dissent in the campaign finance case. And he showed his age. 

The language in his written dissent was forceful. But it was striking to see him appear to stumble over words as he read it, to mispronounce words like “corruption” and “allegation,” to seem to lose his place in his summary, to often hit the microphone with his hand or his papers. 

Maybe it was just a bad day, and Lord knows we’ve all had those. And certainly it was the longest summary from the bench in some time. But it was so different from the John Paul Stevens we’ve come to know. He’s the maverick justice who asks pointed questions from the bench and cleverly makes his points, sometimes with sly dry humor. 

Today, he was different, and almost felt like relief when he finally got through his summary. 

Was it, in fact, just a bad day for JPS? Did the thought of unlimited corporate spending on federal and state elections simply leave him feshemmeled? Did the thought of Sheryl Crow performing with Kid Rock on the Hope for Haiti telethon render him verklempt? 

Clerquette is looking for some cold, hard facts ... or some reasonably good gossip. If you've heard anything about the JPS situation, please email her (or find her on Facebook)!