Rehnquist's Decision Is the Talk of D.C.
By JESSE J. HOLLAND,
Amid widespread rumors and speculation, senators are split on whether Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will join Sandra Day O'Connor in retirement and give President Bush multiple appointments to the Supreme Court.
O'Connor announced plans to leave the high court two weeks ago and speculation is swirling about the future of the 80-year-old Rehnquist, who has thyroid cancer.
Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said senators had discussed with O'Connor a scenario under which she might consider changing her mind if Rehnquist retired and Bush offered to make her chief justice.
"The response that I heard was that she said she was flattered, that she didn't say no," Specter, who was not among that group, said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "I think it would be quite a capping to her career if she served for a time, maybe a year or so."
Still, Specter said he thinks Rehnquist will stay on. "My own analysis is that the chief is not going to step down as long as his health holds up," he said.
"Being engaged in a bout with cancer myself, I know that it's good to get up every morning and have something that you have to do, something that is important to do," he said.
But Sen. Orrin Hatch (news, bio, voting record), R-Utah, Specter's predecessor as Judiciary Committee chairman, offered a different opinion.
"I expect by the end of the year that he will retire because I think he's really wanted to," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "That's my sense, but I've been wrong before."
Sen. Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record) of Vermont, the committee's senior Democrat, thinks Rehnquist will remain on the bench.
"He enjoys being chief justice," Leahy said. "He's really shaped it into a strong chief justiceship. And I don't think he wants to leave."
Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., another committee member, said the only person who knows whether Rehnquist's retirement is coming is Rehnquist.
"It's solely up to him," Schumer said. "It's a lifetime appointment ... No one, not the president, not anyone else, can call him and say, 'You have to do it.'"
The Senate is ready to handle multiple confirmation hearings, Hatch said, noting it has done so before.
The last time there were simultaneous vacancies at the court was in 1971. Justices Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan retired that September, about a week apart. Their successors were Rehnquist, then an assistant attorney general in the Nixon administration, and Lewis Powell.
If Rehnquist retires, the Senate could have as many as three hearings going on at the same time. For example, senators would have to hold hearings for a new chief justice if Bush promoted either Justice Antonin Scalia or Justice Clarence Thomas to the top spot.
Bush would then get two more picks, one to replace the promoted justice and a second to replace O'Connor.
Multiple confirmation hearings could change the nomination equation for Bush, Specter said.
"It would give the president a chance to put somebody whom the conservatives would really like very much to fill where Rehnquist has been philosophically on the court, and somebody who is more of a swing voter, like Justice O'Connor," he said.
Democrats have said they would oppose having simultaneous hearings. They complained bitterly when Hatch held confirmation hearings for multiple federal appeals court nominees at the same time in 2003.
Hatch said he does not expect that to happen with the Supreme Court, but that Specter would have to make that decision.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is considered a top contender for the high court, but several Republican-leaning groups have complained that he is not conservative enough for their liking.
They would prefer Bush to pick from a list of conservative federal appeals court judges: Samuel Alito, J. Michael Luttig, Michael McConnell, John Roberts Jr. and J. Harvie Wilkinson III.
Gonzales, however, is the president's longtime friend and ally, and his nomination would put a Hispanic on the high court.
Bush on Tuesday will discuss the court situation with Specter, Leahy, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
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