Bush to Nominate First Supreme Court Justice in 2005; Court to Address Ten Commandments Issues

President George W. Bush will have his first opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court justice in the coming year, and that nominee will be an individual who “lives conservative values,” a University of Alabama law professor says.

Constitutional law expert Bryan Fair expects Chief Justice William Rehnquist to be the first justice to retire, with Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and John Paul Stevens likely to follow soon after.

“The potential resignations and new appointments will overshadow most Supreme Court decisions this term, but changes to the Court may shift the balance of power among the justices for decades to come,” Fair said.

“Chief Justice Rehnquist is expected to announce his retirement soon in light of recent disclosures about his battle with thyroid cancer and his absence from recent oral arguments and Court conferences. At 80, he has been on the Court since 1972 and has been chief justice since 1986,” Fair said.

O’Connor and Stevens also have long tenures. O’Connor, 74, joined the Supreme Court in 1981 and Stevens, 84, was appointed to the Court in 1975.

“I suspect that former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson tops the president’s list of potential nominees,” Fair said. “But I expect pressure from activist conservatives to appoint a moral conservative, such as former Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, who Bush recently named to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals via a recess appointment.”

Looking at specific cases currently before the Supreme Court, Fair predicts that the Court will clarify which Ten Commandments displays by government are constitutional and which violate the Establishment Clause.

“The Court’s decisions will surely inspire the ire of citizens on both sides of the issue,” Fair said. “A decision against displaying the Ten Commandments could launch state and national campaigns by former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and his supporters.”

Fair said the Supreme Court is unlikely to reach out for the most controversial decisions this year. Supreme Court decisions in the areas of gay marriage or gun control, for example, are probably several years away, he said.