Eminent Domain

I came across an interesting factoid while browsing this weekend's posts on Confirm Them...

Of the 101 former justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, 50 left office "feet first"” whereas 51 left office by retiring or resigning or assuming senior status.

Wow, I had no idea that half of all the Supreme Court Justices have died in office. I guess if you have a job that cushy you're not going to want to leave it. The law-related bar bet trivia gems continue...

Of those 51 who left office voluntarily, the party of the appointing president was the same as the party of the replacing president in 34 instances, and the party was different in the remaining 17 instances.

That assumes that you count Democratic-Republican appointments as Democratic and you count Whig appointments as Republican. I'm not sure if that is entirely fair, but that's another debate for another time.

These fun Supreme Court facts didn't just appear on Confirm Them for no particular reason. They are keeping the hope alive that Justice Stevens will retire at the end of this term or the next. He was a Republican appointee and we do have a Republican president. I would be shocked if there was a retirement at the end of this term. Everyone on the Court seems healthy and happy. I stand by my prediction that there will be one more retirement before the 2008 election, though. It probably just won't happen soon.