Senate traffic jam

With the passing of the Chief Justice, William H. Rehnquist, the US Senate is going to be a very busy place this fall. Two new justice nominations (they'd better get the process rolling on Roberts ASAP) and the confirmation hearings for a new chief justice.

According to SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court will resume normal operation this month with John Paul Stevens acting as the senior justice (or something like that). I wasn't sure what happened here and I'm sure I wasn't alone.

Here's one tidbit I picked up this evening, Rehnquist and fellow justice (and recent retiree) Sandra Day O'Connor were classmates in the same Stanford Law class.