ORIN KERR has a lot of thoughts on what an O’Connor retirement means, but observes an important lacuna in the discussion: “Oddly, Justice O’Connor’s letter does not mention the all-important question: what is to happen to Sasha Volokh?”

Howard Bashman and SCOTUSblog are all over this, as you might imagine.

O’Connor’s, um, variable voting pattern means that if whoever replaces her is more consistent it will make a disproportionate difference. That also means that this fight is likely to be nastier than the fight over, say, a replacement for Rehnquist. Bench Memos has a lot on the politics involved.

And Mickey Kaus is pushing Robert Nagel for the vacancy. Good suggestion, but I doubt it’ll happen.