Justice John Paul Stevens announces his retirement from U.S. Supreme Court

A couple months shy of a year after Justice David Souter announced he was leaving the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens is following suit, as widely expected, after thirty four years as an Associate Justice.

He sent news of his decision in a letter to President Barack Obama, hand delivered this morning by a representative of the Supreme Court:

My dear Mr. President:

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, under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 371(b), effective the next day after the Court rises for the summer recess this year.

Most respectfully yours,

John Paul Stevens

Stevens, who is one of the Supreme Court's four liberal leaning justices, is also the oldest; he will turn ninety on April 20th, less than two weeks from today. Appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975, he has served alongside three different chief justices (Burger, Rehnquist, Roberts) and through seven different presidencies (Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, W. Bush, Obama).

Stevens' retirement appears to be the latest chapter of a carefully planned exodus by the Supreme Court's liberal wing. Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer all managed to make it through the Bush error, denying Dubya a chance to replace them with extremist conservatives.

Now they're retiring, one by one, so that President Obama has the power to choose their successors before his first term ends.

They've taken control of their own destinies so that their legacy remains alive on our nation's highest court. We can't thank them enough for their outstanding service to the United States of America.