(Reuters) - Liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced on Friday that he will resign, giving President Barack Obama his second high court appointment and setting up a potential partisan election-year Senate confirmation battle.
A confirmation battle could sidetrack Democratic plans to focus on the economy and job creation ahead of November's congressional elections in which Republicans are hoping to regain control of Congress.
The departure of Stevens means Obama will get his second Supreme Court appointment. Last year, he named Sonia Sotomayor as the Supreme Court's first Hispanic in filling the vacancy created by Justice David Souter's retirement.
Stevens said in his letter that he would retire one day after the Supreme Court's current term ends, which is expected in late June.
Stevens said he had concluded it would be in the best interests of the court to have my successor appointed and confirmed by the Senate well in advance of the start of the court's next term, which begins in October.
Obama is expected to nominate a fellow liberal to replace Stevens and then push hard to win the required Senate confirmation for the lifetime appointment. It would not change the overall ideological balance on the court, divided with five conservatives and four liberals.
Obama administration officials and legal experts said the leading candidates to replace Stevens were expected to be current Solicitor General Elena Kagan and a pair of U.S. appeals court judges, Diane Wood and Merrick Garland.
Reporting by James Vicini, Editing by David Alexander
Reuters
