Making The Right Choice.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Supreme Court: With the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, attention turns to what kind of person President Bush should pick to replace her. But Bush has already said what he wants, and quite explicitly.

O'Connor's departure, while not wholly unexpected, still comes as a surprise. Most people expected ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist to step down first.

That it was O'Connor only raises the stakes of the coming political battle over a successor. Especially in recent years, O'Connor had become a centrist swing vote on the court in many key legal battles. At stake, therefore, is the court's current tenuous balance.

O'Connor was part of mainly liberal 5-4 majorities in highly publicized court cases -- including affirmative action, campaign finance reform and religious displays in public -- that a more conservative judge might reverse.

This is why Bush's pick will be so momentous. He will not only be filling a position on the nation's highest court. He also will likely be determining its philosophical tilt for years to come.

We have no idea whom Bush favors, and we'll leave the guesswork to others. We do know what he has said, and we hope he doesn't stray from that.

"I'll put competent judges on the bench, people who will strictly interpret the Constitution and will not use the bench to write social policy," Bush said when he debated Al Gore in October 2000. "I don't believe in liberal, activist judges. I believe in strict constructionists. And those are the kind of judges I will appoint."