The NYT has SC stories aplenty:

An overview of O’Connor’s career: O’Connor Held Balance of Power.

An interesting piece on the surprise nature of the announcement: After a Brief Shock, Advocates on All Sides Quickly Mobilize

Around 9:30 Friday morning, C. Boyden Gray, founder of the Committee for Justice, a conservative group that is a leading ally of President Bush, was sipping coffee at his Georgetown residence and confessing mild frustration to a reporter for The New York Times about the waiting game for a Supreme Court retirement. Suddenly he got a text message and expressed that emotion rare for stage-managed Washington: surprise.

“An O’Connor resignation was not one we took seriously,” Mr. Gray said, rushing out the door to begin deploying his troops.

And, of coures, the requisite list of possible nominees: In List of Potential Justices, Many Kinds of Conservative (along with an interactive graphic)

WaPo underscores the significance of the situation: Nomination Could Be Defining Moment for Bush

There are few genuine earthquakes in American politics, but yesterday’s announcement by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor easily qualifies as one. Her retirement is likely to trigger one of the most consequential confirmation battles in a generation, with the ideological balance of the Supreme Court and the future of contentious social issues now firmly in the hands of President Bush.

[…]

The Supreme Court is the lone branch of government where conservatives have been unable to gain the dominant voice, to the great frustration of those on the right. Among the most ardent conservatives, there is no better evidence of the need to change the court than two decisions that marked the end of the term this summer, which limited displays of the Ten Commandments on government property and gave local governments the power to seize private property for commercial development.

The choice ahead for Bush in selecting a successor to O’Connor may prove to be the most important domestic decision of his presidency, given its potential impact on abortion and other issues and rivaling Iraq in its ability to split the country. He will soon decide just how far to try to push the court in a different direction. The bolder he is, the more likely he will touch off a battle that will consume Washington and much of the country for the rest of the summer and whose impact could be felt in the 2024 elections and beyond.

And the piece correctly identifies the political pressure that Bush is facing:

There are huge risks for Bush no matter which way he moves. He faces enormous pressure from the right to appoint someone more conservative than O’Connor. But such a move risks a potentially bruising battle with Senate Democrats and a backlash among voters in the middle of the ideological spectrum, who may worry about the GOP’s social and cultural agenda.