Sandra Day O'Connor Says She Would've Stayed Longer

From Associated Press:

Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would have preferred to stay on the Supreme Court for several more years until she was ill and "really in bad shape" but stepped down because of her ailing husband.

O'Connor, 76, also says she accelerated her retirement announcement by at least a year because then-Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who was battling thyroid cancer, told her he was not ready to leave the court, according to a Newsweek interview released Sunday.

"I was concerned about whether he had an intention to step down since his plans might have altered my own. It's hard for the nation to grapple with two (retirements) at once," she said.

After Rehnquist said he was staying, O'Connor announced her retirement in July 2005. Rehnquist died two months later.

O'Connor, who is still physically and mentally fit, said it was her plan to follow the tradition of previous justices, who enjoy lifetime appointments, to work until they die or are virtually incapacitated.

"Most of them get ill and are really in bad shape, which I would've done at the end of the day myself, I suppose, except my husband was ill and I needed to take action there," O'Connor said.

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My Comments:
Dictators, in whatever form they exist, generally prefer to cling to power until the very end.