Conscience of the Court.

I’m late on this post on account of vacationing, but nonetheless: As the world knows (and long suspected after he only hired one clerk last year), Justice John Paul Stevens has announced his retirement after 34 years on the Court. (See also Dahlia Lithwick’s commemoration of Stevens’ empathy, as well as the Tao of Stevens here and here.)

Expected it may be, but this is not good news. The President is saying all the right things about picking a Justice who will uphold campaign finance laws in the wake of the Citizens United disaster. But, as the pathetic recent capitulation on Dawn Johnsen showed once more, this White House too often shrinks from a necessary fight in the name of an elusive “bipartisanship” that, quite frankly, does not exist.

With Stevens gone and the fearsome foursome of Roberts, Alito, Thomas, and Scalia still roaming the chambers, the Court needs a strong and unabashed liberal conscience right now. What it emphatically does not need is another centrist technocrat that will help push the Court ever further to the right. The ball’s in your court, Mr. President — It’s time to show more of the progressive gumption we voted you in office to provide.