Supreme decision: the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens gives President Obama his second opportunity to shape the Supreme Court.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: NATIONAL

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When Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced in April that he would retire at the end of the Court's term, he set the stage for a confirmation fight over his replacement that could consume Washington this summer, just as the nation gears up for midterm elections in November.

At 90, Stevens is the oldest and the longest-serving member of the current Court. He is also considered the leader of the Court's liberal bloc. His retirement gives President Obama the chance to make his second appointment to the Court; his first was Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who joined the Court last summer.

"The ideological leaning of the Court won't change dramatically; he was a liberal and President Obama will appoint a liberal to replace him," says Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University.

Aside from Stevens, four other Justices are over 70 (see graphic), so it's possible that this won't be Obama's last chance to make a Supreme Court appointment.

Stevens was appointed in 1975 by President Gerald R. Ford, a Republican, who said all he wanted was "the finest legal mind I could find." In that sense, Stevens is a vestige of a time when ability and independence, rather than perceived ideology, were viewed as the crucial qualifications for a seat on the high court. Nineteen days after he was nominated, and after only five minutes of debate, the Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed Stevens, a Republican, by a vote of 98-0.

Don't expect anything so civilized this time around. In recent decades, the confirmation process has become a months-long ordeal. Nominees are carefully screened by the White House, and then grilled on live TV by Senators about their views, private lives, and anything they've written. The intense scrutiny means that it's much less likely that an appointee will turn out to be a surprise. But it's not impossible.

"You never know how one person can end up moving a Court," says Lee Epstein, a Northwestern University law professor. "The Justices change, the times change, the cases change."

When Stevens joined the Court, he was considered a moderate. He has said repeatedly that his beliefs haven't changed, but that the Court has shifted, becoming more conservative in recent decades. But others say Stevens has also changed--underscoring the point that a President can never know for sure what kind of Justice his choice will turn out to be.

(President Dwight D. Eisenhower learned that the hard way with his...