Posted by Tina
Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire, by Nina Totenberg NPR
** NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term. *** The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction. *** At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact, he is in the younger half of the court’s age range, with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire. Now, according to reliable sources, he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision. **
Some background information is available in a US News article by Justin Ewers from May 2008:
** Given his first appointment to the high court, most observers expect Obama will appoint a woman, since the court currently has only one female justice and Obama was elected with strong support from women. But an Obama pick would be unlikely to change the ideological makeup of the court. *** Souter was a Republican appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, largely on the recommendation of New Hampshire’s former Gov. John Sununu, who had become the first President Bush’s chief of staff. *** But Souter surprised Bush and other Republicans by joining the court’s more liberal wing. *** He generally votes with Stevens and the two justices who were appointed by President Bill Clinton making up the bloc of four more liberal members of the court, a group that has usually been in the minority throughout Souter’s tenure. *** Possible nominees who have been mentioned as being on a theoretical short list include Elena Kagan, the current solicitor general who represents the government before the Supreme Court; Sonia Sotomayor, a Hispanic judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; and Diane Wood, a federal judge in Chicago who taught at the University of Chicago at the same time future President Barack Obama was teaching constitutional law there. **