While we'd like Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens announced today that he plans to retire this summer, allowing President Obama to make the second Supreme Court nomination of his presidency. While Obama cannot be sure that the judge he nominates will vote as he expects, we can bet that he will choose a liberal judge in an effort to preserve the balance of the court. Obama must treat carefully, though, as his relations with the Court are strained. His criticism of their decision to overturn campaign finance law and remove the limits on political advertising by corporations during elections visibly angered Chief Justice Roberts at the State of the Union Address.

While we'd like to believe that Obama could simply nominate the most qualified person for position, it's an unavoidable fact that race and gender will play into this decision. A liberal nominee with a background similar to that of Justice Sotomayor, while undoubtedly qualified for the position, could estrange independents as well as excite Obama's base. While Obama's comments on Stevens' impending retirement have not yielded any telling hints about candidates, his intention to pick someone who, "knows that in a democracy powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens," seems to refer directly to the court's campaign finance decision. So far, reliable sources have pointed to candidates from last summer's election as well as Harold Koh, State Department legal adviser, and Cass Sunstein, a constitutional law professor who has taught at Harvard and the University of Chicago.

Obama must be careful in this nomination though, as the Democrats no longer have the filibuster-proof 60 seat majority in the Senate, allowing Republicans to block a nominee more easily. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has already assured conservatives that "Americans can expect Senate Republicans to make a sustained and vigorous case for judicial restraint and the fundamental importance of an even-handed reading of the law." Given the major goals Obama claims he still has for his presidency, financial regulation reform, an education bill, and immigration, it might be best for Obama to pick a less controversial candidate and focus on his legislative agenda.