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Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens confirmed over the weekend that he will step down from the high court while President Barack Obama is still in office.
Stevens, who turns 90 this month, has spent the last 35 years as the leader of the court’s liberal wing. He said in a Web interview Saturday he would leave during President Obama’s tenure in hopes of preserving the high court’s ideological balance.
“I do have to fish or cut bait, just for my own personal peace of mind and also in fairness to the process,” Stevens told the New York Times. “The president and the Senate need plenty of time to fill a vacancy.”
An announcement from Stevens on a retirement timetable is expected to take place sometime this month, according to a report from CNN.
Businessweek reports three potential candidates to replace Stevens are under consideration by the White House. The group includes U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, federal appellate judges Diane Wood and Merrick Garland, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
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