Four female senators called Thursday for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to stay on the court and try for chief justice if the ailing William Rehnquist steps down.

In a letter to O’Connor, Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Barbara Boxer of California asked the nation’s first female justice to consider staying on the high court if Chief Justice Rehnquist relinquishes the top spot.