How a president endures

Besides the record a president leaves behind when he first retires, and then passes on, there are those marks on history that endure. President Gerald Ford has been remembered this past week for his character, for all of his service – in the military and government – and his leadership.

This MSNBC journalist thinks the most important legacy of President Ford is the impact he made in naming Justice Stevens to the Supreme Court. Ford brought the country relief from the “long national nightmare” of Watergate, and left it with many new laws and decisions and consequences of having served in the highest office.

But one thing Ford did is making a profound difference in the lives of Americans living today. Measured by its lasting impact, Ford’s most significant act as president was appointing John Paul Stevens to the Supreme Court.

This week, Tom Curry points out…

will mark the 31st anniversary of Stevens’ taking his oath as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. Stevens has turned out to be one of the stalwart members of the court’s liberal wing.

Thirty years after Ford left office, Americans are living under legal rules created by the Supreme Court, in many cases by 5-to-4 decisions with Stevens in the majority.

Among them:

Stevens wrote the majority opinion in Kelo v. New London, the 2005 decision that held that local and state governments could condemn and acquire private property even when it was not to be used for a public purpose.

Eminent domain has been controversial ever since.

He joined a 2000 decision called Stenberg v. Carhart in which the court struck down a Nebraska law banning so-called “partial-birth” abortions.

When journalists refer to the procedure as “so-called ‘partial birth’ abortions,” I always wonder what they would call it. The child is in the process of being born, and he/she is killed in the process. What else would you call that?

Anyway, Stenberg also became controversial.

There have been rumors that Justice Stevens is considering retirement, though they are merely rumors with no apparent grounding, and we all know how long rumors circulated about Rehnquist while he remained in place. But some media have quoted Stevens as saying that since he was named to the court by a Republican president, he would like to be replaced by one.

This is a good time for a new Justice.