President Obama will have his first opportunity to appoint an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court soon. Justice David Souter is expected to announce that he will retire at the end of the current term of the Court this summer.
Justice Souter, 69, who was appointed in 1990 by Republican President George H. W. Bush, is considered to be one of the four liberal leaning Justices of the Court.
Justice Souter served as Attorney General for his home state of New Hampshire, as a Superior Court Judge and State Supreme Court Justice in New Hampshire. He was appointed as a Federal Appellate Judge (DC Circuit) in 1990 and as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in the same year.
He will be eligible to sit as a Senior Judge on Federal Appellate Courts after his retirement if he wishes to do so. Currently, the only other living retired Associate Justice is Sandra Day O’Connor.
Justice Souter’s decision to retire is a bit surprising to me. He is one of the younger members of the Court. Justice Stevens, 89, Justice Ginsburg, 76, had been mentioned as possible candidates for retirement during President Obama’s term. Justices Scalia, 73 and Kennedy, 72, are also older than Souter.
Since Justice Souter is already considered to be liberal in his decisions and views, it would seem that President Obama’s first pick will not influence the make-up of the Court significantly. But it will give us an opportunity to see how his mind works in the process. There is certainly an opportunity to put an additional woman or minority Justice in place.
It also appears with Senator Spector’s defection from the Republicans and the likely placement of Al Franken as Senator from Minnesota in the near future that the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the Senate.
Justice Souter has served as Associate Justice for 18 years and is known to prefer life in his native New Hampshire to life in Washington DC.
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