Thanks For Nothing, Sandra D.

Oh, so now Sandra Day O'Connor decides she's not ready to retire???

Federal Appeals Court in Manhattan will be in session Wednesday with an especially distinguished jurist on the bench - former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

After retiring in January, O'Connor will again don the black robe to hear five cases on the morning calendar - one criminal, one bankruptcy and three civil.

It happens infrequently but it is not unusual for a former justice to sit on an appeals panel. Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall sat for a week on a 2nd Circuit panel here in 1992 after retiring from the high court a year earlier. Justice Byron White heard appeals cases after he retired from the Supreme Court in 1993.

"This is not ceremonial," said the appeals court's new chief judge, Dennis Jacobs. "The cases that are on the calendar represent the bread-and-butter work of our court. They are various, and they are interesting."

Hrmf. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and allow that she didn't want to give up judging completely, but wanted to downshift to something with less pressure and less time-commitment. But now we're stuck with Alito on the Supreme Court for the next 30-40 years. Surely she knew Bush would appoint a right-wing crazy person to replace her; I guess she just didn't care.