Stevens: Appropriate To Consider Successor When Retiring From SCOTUS

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

This post has been updated.

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on Sunday said he thinks that it’s appropriate for justices to consider politics when weighing their decision to retire.

“It’s an appropriate thing to think about your successor, not only in this job,” Stevens said on ABC’s “This Week.” “I’m just finishing the book by former Secretary [of Defense Robert] Gates. He thought a lot about his successor, too. If you’re interested in the job and in the kind of work that’s done, you have to have an interest in who’s going to fill your shoes.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is under pressure to retire while President Obama is in office so that he can appoint another liberal-leaning judge in her place. However, she has repeatedly argued that justices should not retire only when Presidents with similar political views are in the White House.

Stevens told ABC that Ginsburg didn’t need his help deciding about her retirement.

“I’d say she doesn’t need my advice,” he said.

Stevens told ABC that he had an agreement with retired Justice David Souter that he would tell Stevens when it was time to retired. Souter ended up retiring before Stevens.

“Well, my decision was not made for any political reason whatsoever. It was my concern about my own health,” Stevens said about his retirement from the Supreme Court.

Correction: The original version of this post said that Stevens told ABC that he gave Ginsburg advice on retirement. He told ABC that he gave her advice on becoming a Senior Associate Supreme Court Justice.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: