This NY Times article does a good job of summarizing the situation surrounding the increasingly likely retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who is suffering from thyroid cancer and the effects of the treatment for the condition. The Times article reports that a consensus is developing within the Bush Administration that Justice Rehnquist will step down at the end of the Supreme Court’s term in June. According to the Times article, the five names on the Administration’s short list are as follows:

1) Michael W. McConnell of the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit,
2) John G. Roberts of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia,
3) J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and
4) J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and
5) Samuel A. Alito of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, who is mentioned as “another possible candidate.”

This is a high caliber list of intellectual heavyweights who, I believe with the exception of Judge Alito, are all former Supreme Court clerks. My personal favorite for the appointment is Judge Roberts, who I have found to be an absolutely superb thinker and writer in the opinions that he has penned while on the D.C. Court of Appeals.