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Maybe former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor just got sick of arguing with Scalia when she decided to quit her lifetime appointment in 2005. Clearly she didn’t step aside because she didn’t like being a judge! At 78, no one would knock O’Connor for spending more time on the links, but instead, last week, O’Connor made news in Boston when she not only heard an appeal in a federal money-laundering case, but wrote the opinion, too. Oddly enough, her ruling now allows federal prosecutors to proceed with a case against the only Republican running to fill a state legislative seat being vacated by a Democrat. (You can read more about the case here.) Even in retirement, it seems, O’Connor is redefining “judicial independence.”
