March 16, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Justice John Paul Stevens, at 89 the Supreme Court's oldest member, says he will decide in the next month or so whether this term will be his last.

Stevens tells The New Yorker magazine that he definitely will retire in the next three years. His comments suggest that President Barack Obama, whom Stevens says he admires, will likely nominate his successor.

The leader of the court's liberals, Stevens is the second oldest justice in U.S. history and fourth longest-serving. He says that breaking those records doesn't interest him.

Republican President Gerald R. Ford nominated Stevens to the court in 1975. Stevens turns 90 in April.

The New Yorker's profile of Stevens appears in its March 22 issue.

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