"Rehnquist's Death Puts Stevens in Charge" By ANNE GEARAN , Associated Press Writer

~~~ Justice Stevens is my favorite Justice.

He is 85 and now in charge.

Click HERE to see an earlier--- and now important--- article on a

recent spreech he gave.

~ ~ ~TP

"Rehnquist's Death Puts Stevens in Charge"

By ANNE GEARAN , Associated Press Writer

1010wins.com

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist leaves the court's oldest member, 85-year-old liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, temporarily in charge.

Stevens, although chosen for the court by a Republican president, has emerged as the court's most liberal member.

Stevens, although chosen for the court by a Republican president, has emerged as the court's most liberal member.

That is due more to the court's gradual shift rightward under the leadership of the conservative Rehnquist than to changes in Stevens' own philosophy.

Small, acerbic and dapper in a bow tie, Stevens has a quiet and genial manner on and off the bench.

He is less likely to badger lawyers who argue before the court than some of his colleagues, and often says little during oral arguments.

He speaks in public infrequently, and is not the constant presence at arts performances or charity functions frequented by some of his colleagues.

He lives part-time in Florida, and spends his off-hours playing competitive duplicate bridge and tennis.

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Justice Weighs Desire v. Duty (Duty Prevails) - New York Times

~~~
Justice Stevens calling decsions he voted for unwise.

But the blame lies with congress, he says ,, as they write the dumb laws. { I am paraphasing him there .]

In the annals of Supreme Court History , this is a major speech -- that is sure to be cited often in Law Schools & civil liberties classes . ~
~` TP

August 25, 2005
"Justice Weighs Desire v. Duty (Duty Prevails)"
By LINDA GREENHOUSE, N.Y. Times ;

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 - It is not every day that a Supreme Court justice calls his own decisions unwise. But with unusual candor, Justice John Paul Stevens did that last week in a speech in which he explored the gap that sometimes lies between a judge's desire and duty.

Addressing a bar association meeting in Las Vegas, Justice Stevens dissected several of the recent term's decisions, including his own majority opinions in two of the term's most prominent cases. The outcomes were 'unwise,' he said, but 'in each I was convinced that the law compelled a result that I would have opposed if I were a legislator.'

In one, the eminent domain case that became the term's most controversial decision, he said that his majority opinion that upheld the government's 'taking' of private homes for a commercial development in New London, Conn., brought about a result 'entirely divorced from my judgment concerning the wisdom of the program' that was under constitutional attack.

His own view, Justice Stevens told the Clark County Bar Association, was that 'the free play of market forces is more likely to produce acceptable results in the long run than the best-intentioned plans of public officials.' But he sa"