Singing Loudly

Obviously, the biggest news story of today (and possibly of the year for Americans) is that Justice O'Connor resigned from the bench today.

I can't do justice to O'Connor's legacy, but I can point you in the right direction. This CS Monitor article has a lot of good information, and I would also suggest reading the Linda Greenhouse article.

There is one thing that I should say about O'Connor before I drop the subject. I'm upset that she is leaving the court because of the obvious implications. However, I'm also upset that she is leaving the court because, while I typically disagreed with her opinions, she was a very respectable Justice. I hope that Bush honors that by appointing someone who has class, someone who is intelligent, someone who is not afraid, and someone who takes an honest look at the dispute and the Constitution and makes a decision based on that instead of being based on personal ambitions. There is great reason to doubt Bush will live up to the awesome responsibility he has been giving in this regard, however, I hope that for the sake of honoring O'Connor's place, he will do so.

Another unfortunate result of O'Connor (a storied Justice -- excuse the pun) is that she will now have too much time to spend on her recreational fiction pursuits. All kidding aside, I wish her well and respect her for all the public service she did while on the bench.