So speculation is in full swing on Justice John Paul Stevens' replacement this summer. Our advice to the eventual nominee? Plan to stay a while. Stevens took William O. Douglas's seat; Douglas was appointed by President Roosevelt more than two years before the U.S. entered the Second World War, and is the record holder for longest tenure on the court at 36 years and 209 days. Stevens' tenure, at 34 years and 124 days, makes him the fourth longest serving Justice. The difference between Justice Stevens and the second-longest serving Supreme Court Justice (Stephen Johnson Field): 80 days.
William O. Douglas took the seat from Louis Brandeis, whom was the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice and was nominated by President Wilson before the U.S. entered the First World War; Brandeis served on the court with the legendary Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., a veteran of the Civil War and the oldest person to serve on the Supreme Court (Justice Stevens holds the honor of the second-oldest serving Justice). Between these three men no other justice has occupied the seat since 1916. One thing is clear, the next nominee needs to be ready for a long stay on the bench if they want to fill the large footprints that they are following.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a contemporary who never knew a day on the court without having Stevens as a colleague, is rumored to have kept a pillow in her office chair reading “Sometimes In Error, But Never In Doubt.” The pillow in the seat vacated by Justice Stevens should probably say, “Whether Or Not In Error, In For The Long Haul.” It should probably be a very comfortable pillow, too.