"Make no mistake about it," Theo-dore Olson, a former solicitor-general and a possible candidate for the Supreme Court himself, said after the November election, "any attempt [to fill a vacancy on the court], especially that of chief justice, will set off a political firestorm. The presidential election was merely about the next four years. A Supreme Court justice is for life. It will not be pretty." The composition of the present court has remained unchanged for more than a decade—longer than that of any other Supreme Court in the past 180 years. The news that William Rehnquist, the 80-year-old chief justice, has been undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer, has sparked a bout of speculation that he might retire. There have also been rumours that both John Paul Stevens (who is 84) and Sandra Day O'Connor (74) may go. Most of the other justices-Antonin Scalia (68), Anthony Kennedy (68), David Souter (65), Clarence Thomas (56), Ruth Bader Gins-burg (71), Stephen Breyer (66)—are hardly spring chickens. And most Americans want mandatory retirement for judges.
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