JP Stevens to preside over Bush trial...if there is one.

[Tom Joad]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/04/national/w074918D88.DTL

The death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist leaves the court's oldest member, 85-year-old liberal Justice John Paul Stevens, temporarily in charge.

The court operates on a strict seniority system, meaning that whenever the chief justice is absent the justice with the most years on the court takes over. Stevens, named to the high court by President Ford in 1975, also filled in for Rehnquist when the chief justice was absent from the bench for several months after announcing his cancer diagnosis last October.
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Rehnquist, in his role as Chief Justice, presided over the impeachment trial of Clinton. Until he is formally replaced, Stevens is acting Chief Justice.

Let's say the Senate does not approve of a replacement of Rehnquist before the House approves Articles of Impeachment, Stevens will be the one presiding over that trial in the US Senate.