[JURIST] The US Supreme Court recessed for the summer Monday morning without any announcement from Chief Justice William Rehnquist [OYEZ profile] on his possible retirement from the bench after 33 years of service. Speculation had been rife that the ailing and increasingly frail Rehnquist, 80, might take the occasion of the court's last sitting of the term to indicate that he would be stepping down, setting the stage for a critical nomination battle over his replacement. Recently, however, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter, had ventured a "strong suspicion that he [Rehnquist] may be with us a while" [JURIST report]. A retirement announcement could, however, still be forthcoming by press release or publicly-disclosed letter to the President. AP has more.