This morning, President Bush said he will make a quick decision on a nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and issued a thinly veiled warning to the US Senate not to block his choice. In response, public interest groups and concerned citizens are sounding the alarm on what could be Bush’s biggest opportunity yet to cement his reactionary agenda for years to come.

As Nan Aron, executive director of the Alliance for Justice, said today, “The impact of Justice O’Connor’s replacement will affect the lives of all Americans not just for four years but for forty. A new justice–a lifetime appointee–has the awesome power of deciding critical issues affecting our workplaces, our civil rights, our environment and our privacy”

The Alliance as well as the People for the American Way are both working to rally opposition to what is widely expected to be a divisive, far-right appointment by the President. Check out their websites (here and here) for info on what’s expected next and what you can help do about it.

The Daily Kos, one of the world’s preeminent liberal bloggers, also has a very useful checklist of things you can do today to help in the first Supreme Court nomination battle in more than a decade.

Finally, for more on what’s at stake in this impending battle, read new weblog posts by my colleagues David Corn and John Nichols.