John Paul Stevens

The Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative advocacy group, warned Obama against "packing the Supreme Court with rubber stamps instead of judges. To an activist judge, the Constitution represents an inconvenient truth that they will distort, ignore, or defy to push their radical liberal agenda."

Carrie Severino, chief counsel at the Judicial Crisis Network, which works on behalf of conservative judicial nominees, says that the organization has not supported filibusters in the past.

"Every nominee deserves an up-or-down vote," says Severino. "But I would hope that Republicans would be willing to bring up some hard questions."

The hearings, she says, should not be pro forma.

Talking Points Memo: From the right you have Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), formerly Judicial Confirmation Network, joining a host of groups aiming to paint any nominee as a judicial activist and extreme.

"All of the factors point to an opening on the court in the very near term, and we're prepping for anything being possible," Gary Marx, executive director at JCN, told me in an interview. Marx thinks it might be a longshot but could see Obama nominating Clinton or even Biden to the high court, since it has historically been easier to confirm former senators to such positions.

CNN: "The burden of proof is clearly on the White House with any future Supreme Court nominations," said Gary Marx, executive director of the Virginia-based Judicial Crisis Network. "It was assumed on the last go-around that it would be more of a rubber stamp," with Sotomayor winning easy confirmation. "But we're in an entirely new world politically. Obama, I think, wants to take a more aggressive posture, and continue to appeal to his liberal base with the next court nominee, but the Democratic Senate may decide it's not in their best interest to hitch their wagon to the president."

WASHINGTON-Democrats gearing up for a possible Supreme Court vacancy are divided over whether President Barack Obama should appoint a prominent liberal voice while their party still commands a large Senate majority, or go with someone less likely to stoke Republican
opposition.

The court's longest-serving member, Justice John Paul Stevens, has suggested that he may retire at the current term's end in June, when he will be 90 years old

Senate Republicans said that while they may not have the muscle to block a new Supreme Court nomination should Justice John Paul Stevens retire this term, the fight could turn out to be a boon for the party come November 2010. Stevens, who will turn 90 in April, has only hired one law clerk for the court's current session, rather than the standard three or four. Because retiring justices only retain one clerk, speculation has grown that the leader of the court's left wing may be preparing to step aside.