Froggy, posting at Matt’s Blackfive, and Joel Leggett at Southern Appeal are both reporting that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is about to hang up his black robe.

The notion is that the majority opinion written by Stevens in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld was his swan song, reaffirming his liberal legacy as he totters out the door. Certainly he is entitled to that appellation if this story is correct.

But if so, that makes the Hamdan opinion, and the upcoming congressional fight to correct the problem of the Gitmo detainees, all the more critical, coming as it does right before the November election.

Any hint of liberal legislative leniency toward the Gitmo detainees will be pounced upon by Congressional Republicans as an insult to our men and women in uniform and breach in our national security. With the President’s poll numbers ascending steadily, that course could spell trouble for Congressional Democrats come election day.

But that fight will also set the stage for a raging Senatorial confirmation battle for a Stevens replacement on the Court. Liberals may not be inordinately bright, but most of them can count to five, the number of conservative Justices needed to attain and enforce a majority on the court. Replacing Stevens with a conservative would give the Right that judicial majority.