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On Friday, Justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement from the United States Supreme Court. In a letter written just days before his 90th birthday, Stevens addressed President Barack Obama saying, “Having concluded that it would be in the best interests of the Court to have my successor appointed and confirmed well in advance of the commencement of the Court’s next term, I shall retire from regular active service as an Associate Justice.” The announcement means that the President will have the opportunity to appoint a second justice to the Court in what political analysts are already expecting to be a contentious process over the summer. The shortlist of possible nominees to replace Justice Stevens is said to include fewer than ten names. Among the potential leading candidates are 7th circuit Court of Appeals Judge Diane Wood, DC Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, and former Georgia Supreme Court chief justice Leah Ward Sears. As the retiring Stevens was a senior member of the Court’s liberal wing, Obama’s nomination, who ever it may be, will not likely tip the ideological balance towards the left. The President has promised to act swiftly in naming his selection and has said that it will be someone, “who, like Justice Stevens, knows that in a democracy, powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.”

GUEST: Marjorie Cohn, Immediate Past President of the National Lawyers Guild, Professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law