Supreme Court watchers eye Obama

WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. Supreme Court watchers say they're looking for possible retirements as President-elect Barack Obama prepares next month to take the oath of office.

Eyes will be peeled in the coming months because retirements from the bench are usually announced in the spring, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"In the next four years, there could be as many as three vacancies," Kathryn Kolbert of People for the American Way said this month at a conference on the group's push for more liberal justices. A retirement by a liberal justice such as John Paul Stevens, 88, would enable Obama to preserve a 5-4 majority on the court for abortion rights by appointing a liberal replacement, the newspaper said.

Curt Levey of the conservative Committee for Justice also said he was looking for what might be next for the court, noting that Obama's presidential victory and Democrats' continued majorities in both houses of Congress means that "the judiciary is all (conservatives) have now. It's the one branch of government that is not in liberal hands."

Based on their ages, Stevens and fellow liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75, and David Souter, 69, appear the most likely to retire, USA Today said.