David Souter Retiring, Obama gets to make first SCOTUS pick
 

I am super excited that Obama gets a Supreme Court pick, because with the Congress leading democrat, this should be fun, too bad Souter is generally on the liberal wing though (being the most moderate of them), when will Thomas retire... WHEN?!?

here is the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/...ing/index.html

Thomas will not retire anytime in the next 4 years or 8 if Obama wins a second term.

The conservatives on the court are all in pretty good shape for the foreseeable future.

But I do believe the Dems have enough to pack the Court if they get desperate.

There has been speculation for a while that this was coming.

And yeah, don't look for Thomas to retire anytime soon.

oh, i know thomas won't but what is wrong with wishful thinking?

Exactly. Souter has always been a pretty private guy, and he's never really enjoyed the spotlight that comes with being a Court Justice. Now he can retire back to New Hampshire and live a quiet life, without the attention of the DC scene.

SCOTUS Blog has a good rundown of Souter and his legacy here: http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/justice...ere/#more-9387 .

I tend to agree that Sotomayor or Wood will be the nominee; both are brilliant, and neither is all that controversial. I'm unsure whether he would elevate Kagan so soon after making her Solicitor General, but who knows.

Why would Clarence Thomas retire during a Democratic administration? Some of the liberal and moderate members of the Court may retire now, so we can expect that the conservative justices would wait until they could guarantee that someone like-minded would take their place. Clearly, O'Connor's retirement was an exception, but she retired more for family health reasons.

One of my professors went to Oxford and HLS with Souter; they apparently became life-long friends. Souter spoke at my professor's memorial service back in September. He had some great stories--a really funny guy.

Plus O'Connor was kind of a weird case; while she was really a big swing vote and pretty moderate overall on the Court, she is personally Conservative. There's a great scene in one of the Court books (maybe "The Nine") about her celebrating on election night when Bush beat Gore. Part of it was her husband's health, but part of it was her desire to have her replacement chosen by a Republican.

Of course, at the end of the day Souter is a great example of how SCOTUS picks can be vastly different than expected. It's funny to hear about all the protests from womens rights groups, and to see statements from John Kerry about Souter's nomination.

I'd like to hear Souter speak; I dealt with someone all the time in Boston who was a former Souter clerk, and he said that he was a very engaging guy.

ETA: It's funny, Above the Law (and Underneath their Robes) both were reporting that Souter was the only Justice who hadn't picked his clerks for the upcoming terms. Now that makes a lot more sense.

One of the reasons I was saying that there had been speculation he was retiring.

That seems to be a popular consensus, since they are great women with Chicago ties... their names are popping up a lot in the political blogs

4-1+1=4

How young will Obama go with the replacement is the real question?

Probably not any younger than Kagan (who is in her late 40s). If a President wants to put someone on the Court with an eye towards longevity, but with solid legal experience, choosing someone in their 40s-early 50s is usually the way to go (see Thomas, Roberts, Stevens, etc.).

On a side note, Roberts is engaging as well. He has a great sense of humor and is far more personable than I think most people would expect.

They're all definitely brilliant and well-qualified for the position. No matter what, I would imagine that Kagan will end up on the Court at some point (unless she gets involved with some scandal or ethical/legal issue).

Looks like it's Sotomayor: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...nia-sotomayor/ .

I'm slightly surprised, only in that I thought it would be Kagan or Wood. I suppose, though that it's not that surprising: I know there were some questions about Wood's age, and Kagan's young enough that if another vacancy opens up (Ginsburg or Stevens) during Obama's presidency, she can be brought forth as a nominee (with some good non-academic experience to boot as Solicitor General).

ETA: She'll probably sail through the confirmation process; there's really only one controversial opinion (the Riccio firefighter case), and she made a remark a few years ago about judges making policy. Otherwise, she's got the credentials and a fairly impressive life story.

And she's a Type 1 diabetic :). I wonder if she wears a pump or if she takes injections.