Justice Stevens, 89, Announces Summer Retirement

John Paul Stevens, was appointed to the court
in 1975 by President Ford

Ending speculation, Justice John Paul Stevens, the oldest and longest serving member of the nation's highest court announced that he will retire at the end of this year's term in June, giving President Barack Obama a second opportunity in as many years to name a new member of the Supreme Court.

For the second summer in a row, Washington will face the "drama" of a Supreme Court nomination fight. Last year, Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring David Souter. At 55, Sotomayor became the third woman and first Hispanic justice to serve on the Court when she was approved by a United States Senate vote of 68-31 on August 6, 2009.

The short list to replace Stevens looks like:

Merrick B. Garland

57 years old

Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

Harvard College, 1974; Harvard Law School, 1977

A former federal prosecutor now on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Judge Garland is well regarded by Democrats and influential Republican senators like Orrin G. Hatch of Utah.

Diane P. Wood

59 years old

Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago

University of Texas at Austin, 1971; University of Texas Law School, 1975

Judge Wood opposed some abortion restrictions and is respected for standing firm against strong, conservative judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She and President Obama were colleagues at the University of Chicago.

Elena Kagan

49 years old

Solicitor general

Princeton, 1981; Oxford, 1983; Harvard Law School, 1986

With no judicial record, Ms. Kagan is less known. As dean at Harvard Law School, she hired conservative professors to expand academic diversity and has supported assertions of executive power.

Jennifer M. Granholm

51 years old

Governor of Michigan

University of California, Berkeley, 1984; Harvard Law School, 1987

Ms. Granholm is nearing the end of her second term as the first female governor of Michigan. As governor, she has generally opposed legislation to restrict abortion and twice vetoed bans on partial-birth abortion. She was born in Canada and became a United States citizen at age 18.

Janet Napolitano

52 years old

Secretary of Homeland Security

Santa Clara University, 1979; University of Virginia School of Law, 1983

A former Democratic governor in Republican-dominated Arizona, Ms. Napolitano takes pride in defying easy labels and is as strongly supportive of abortion rights as she is of the death penalty. Her prospects might be hurt by criticism that she portrayed a thwarted Christmas bombing of a Detroit-bound airline as a test that the air safety system passed.

I have my money on Elena Kagan, who would also be the first openly gay member of the Court. Other lesbians under possible consideration are Kathleen Sullivan, 54, former Dean of Stanford Law School and Pamela Karlan, 50, another Stanford Law Professor.