SCOTUS back in action, with lots of new Stevens speculations

The Supreme Court is back to work this morning, though this SCOTUSblog post spotlights that we are not going to get opinions in argued cases until Tuesday and that the only criminal justice case on the docket this week is on Wednesday with Magwood v. Culliver (09-198) on successive habeas claims.  Though perhaps getting off to a slow criminal justice start, I will be watching SCOTUS closely the next few weeks because two big cases are to be argued next Tuesday (Dillon on crack modification proceedings and Barber on good time calculations) , and because I anticipate that we will be getting some opinions on some of the big criminal justices cases argued back in 2009 before the end of March.

Meanwhile, if persons cannot wait to start speculating about where the Supreme Court and its membership could headed in the months and years ahead, there are these notable new pieces talking about what might happen if (when?) Justice Stevens announces his retirement soon:

• "White House Said to Have Short List Ready for Justice Stevens' Slot" from the National Law Journal
• "Sizing up the Supreme Court after Justice John Paul Stevens retires" from the Los Angeles Times