According the the NY Times Justice Stevens is contemplating and is expected to retire at the end of this year, giving President Obama a chance to move the Court a little more in his direction:
What Roosevelt really wanted, according to a leading Republican at the time, was a court that listened to its “master’s voice.” Many progressives and moderates, despite their allegiance to Roosevelt, came to share that suspicion.Roosevelt might have avoided his spectacular mistake if he’d listened to his wisest advisers. As he prepared his plan to pack the court, they counseled patience, telling him that the only sure way to change the court’s direction was to change its members when vacancies occurred. Roosevelt didn’t listen — but President Obama should.
The court’s change in direction in 1937 endured because Roosevelt was ultimately able to replace nearly all the justices with his own appointees. If Justice John Paul Stevens retires at the end of this term, as many analysts expect, Mr. Obama will have the chance to make his second appointment. But even then, he will have to wait for an opportunity to shift the court’s balance of power. Patience, in the face of pressing national challenges, is hard. But change, as is now amply clear, does not come quickly.
While the replacement of Stevens might help the Democrats if we argue Bush v. Gore over again, I don't think it will make much of an ideological shift to the Left. I do think it behooves President Obama to chide the Court a little as no matter how liberal his nominee, it will help move public opinion in his direction as far as keeping the Court "balanced."
