decides cases. pete was just pointing out to me that here was john paul stevens. he was actually nominated by a republican president, gerald ford. perhaps metamorphosis is too strong a word. but how do you see justices who go in and the expectation is they are going to take one sort of philosophical stand, and then their stand ends up being very different. well, in his case, he did not fulfill that particular expectation that he would be conservative or republican leaning. but in other cases the justices do sometimes fulfill what they see when they are appointed. sometimes they change. sometimes they change early. sometimes they change late in their career. a notable example of a justice who is living up to expectations and has not changed stripes is the current chief justice john roberts, who was appointed to be
former dean of the harvard law school, diane dean and a federal judge here in washington, d.c. both of them court of appeals judges. one question will be might the president want to choose someone who does not come from the traditional route to the supreme court at least in the last decade or so from the courts of appeals. will he look at someone with political experience. that might mean janet napolitano, the former governor of arizona, now secretary of homeland security, jennifer granholm, governor of michigan. someone from that route. so this does, as luke says, put a new mission on the president s plate. it ends an era in the supreme court, because john paul stevens was not only the oldest justice and the most senior of the associate justices, he was also the head of the court s liberal wing. it was his mission to assign opinions whenever he was in the majority. and he was an excellent
again? a law professor is joining me now. the news we re following here, supreme court justice john paul stevens announcing his retirement at the end of this current term in the supreme court, that s supposed to happen sometime this summer. paul, what does a justice need in whoever the president nominates, whoever the senate confirms, what kind of qualities do they need to effectively replace justice john paul stevens? the thing the public notices most about john paul stevens is he is holding up the liberal wing of the court. that means that generally justices who are in favor of strong affirmative action, in favor of strong individual rights generally will protect, for example, criminal defendants and make sure they have their rights against police and against the state.
about loyalty in the investigation. that may be the biggest danger. is he going to in his interviews this weekend with one or two potential candidates ask them about the investigation into him and if he does, does that compromise a candidate? thank you ali for your question. if he asks the question i believe it compromises the candidate. i think a president under active investigation should not be nominating a supreme court justice. i ll quote from senator mcconnell during the merrick garland nomination. mitch mcconnell said the american people should have a voice. he they would vacancy open for eight months. we have elections in less than five months. we should wait until after november before looking at the issue. matt miller, i want to remind people of james comey s