Contact: Demi Bardsley, Concerned Women for America, 202-255-2278 

WASHINGTON, April 9 /Standard Newswire/ -- After much speculation, news reports confirm that United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will be stepping down from the Court this summer.

Penny Nance, CEO of Concerned Women for America (CWA), said, "The news is no shock for those of us who follow the issue.  Justice Stevens has been sending all the signals for the White House to be prepared.  Our hope is that President Obama has had time to reflect on the issue and will make a change in the way he has looked at nominations.  Will he nominate a justice who will show respect for our laws and the Constitution or will he continue to put ideology over the will of the majority of Americans?

"All three of the nominees in the short list are not encouraging.  Elena Kagan's apparent willingness to look at international law when deciding domestic cases, Judge Merrick Garland's support of granting constitutional rights to enemy combatants, and Diane Wood's extremely radical pro-abortion activism should bring chills to every American.  We know the President can do better than that."

CWA President Wendy Wright said, "Coming off of a debate over health care that has deeply divided the country against Pres. Obama, in which he ignored the Constitution and foisted his contentious beliefs onto millions of Americans, President Obama desperately needs to choose a qualified and Constitutionally-sound nominee. It would be healing for the country for President Obama to change course and select a nominee that respects the Constitution more than their own -- or foreign countries' -- ideology.

Mario Diaz, Esq., CWA's Policy Director for Legal Issues, said, "The President has the opportunity to change the radically divisive image he has created in the minds of many Americans.  If he decides to nominate someone who respects the Constitution as written, instead of someone who believes in a living Constitution that they can mold to say whatever they want, he can do a lot to repair his image.

"Last time, even his own nominee, Justice Sotomayor, rejected the President's idea of the role of a judge, even though her own record lined right up with the President's radical view.  That is how radical the President's view is in this area.  So if experience tells us anything, it tells us he will go with ideology instead of what is best for the country, but we hope and pray that we can finally see a 'change,' like he promised us."

Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.