BREAKING: Justice Stevens Will Retire. Another election issue!

UPDATE: More problems for Goodwin Liu?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Understatement from Doug Mataconis: “Given the political climate, the fact that this is an election year, and the record we already have from the Sotomayor hearings last year, I think we can expect that this will be a very politically charged nomination process.”

MORE: Reader Jeff Mitchell writes: “‘Associate Justice Glenn Harlan Reynolds’ — Has a nice ring, don’t you think?” Heh. Pro-choice and pro-gun? I’m not confirmable under any likely political scenario. Besides, the notion that an obscure teacher of constitutional law could be catapulted to one of the highest offices in the land is absurd on its face.

STILL MORE: Tunku Varadarajan on Stevens.