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Originally Posted by Munchkin03
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.
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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.
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