Source: Justice Souter retiring from high court By MARK SHERMAN and JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writers Mark Sherman And Jennifer Loven, Associated Press Writers 59 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Justice David Souter is planning to retire after nearly two decades on the Supreme Court, but his departure is unlikely to change its conservative-liberal split.
President Barack Obama's first pick for the high court is likely to be a liberal-leaning nominee, much like Souter.
The White House has been told that Souter will retire in June, when the court finishes its work for the summer, a person familiar with his plans said Thursday night. The retirement is likely to take effect only once a successor is confirmed.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for Souter.
Souter had no comment Thursday night, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said.
The vacancy could lead to another woman on the bench to join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, currently the court's only female justice.
At 69, Souter is much younger than either Ginsburg, 76, or Justice John Paul Stevens, 89, the other two liberal justices whose names have been mentioned as possible retirees. Yet those justices have given no indication they intend to retire soon and Ginsburg said she plans to serve into her 80s, despite her recent surgery for pancreatic cancer.
Souter, a regular jogger, is thought to be in excellent health.
Interest groups immediately began gearing up.
"Obama's own record and rhetoric make clear that he will seek left-wing judicial activists who will indulge their passions, not justices who will make their rulings with dispassion," said Ed Whelan, president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, said, "We're looking for President Obama to choose an eminently qualified candidate who is committed to the core constitutional values, who is committed to justice for all and not just a few,"
Some of the names that have been circulating include recently confirmed Solicitor General Elena Kagan; U.S. Appeals Court Judges Sonya Sotomayor, Kim McLane Wardlaw, Sandra Lea Lynch and Diane Pamela Wood; and Leah Ward Sears, chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. Men who have been mentioned as potential nominees include Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein and U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo of Chicago.
Patrick said Friday he's "120 percent" focused on being governor, but did not rule out interest in a high court appointment.
The Obama White House began from almost its first days in office preparing for the possibility of a retirement by thinking about and vetting potential high court nominees. Those efforts only accelerated with Ginsburg's cancer surgery.
The timing may have been unexpected, but Souter has long yearned for a life outside Washington.
He has never made any secret of his dislike for the capital, once telling acquaintances he had "the world's best job in the world's worst city." When the court finishes its work for the summer, he quickly departs for his beloved New Hampshire.
He has been on the court since 1990, when he was an obscure federal appeals court judge until President George H.W. Bush tapped him for the Supreme Court.
Bush White House aide John Sununu, the former conservative governor of New Hampshire, hailed his choice as a "home run." And early in his time in Washington, Souter was called a moderate conservative.
But he soon joined in a ruling reaffirming woman's right to an abortion, a decision from 1992 that remains still perhaps his most noted work on the court.
Souter became a reliable liberal vote on the court and was one of the four dissenters in the 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore that sealed the presidential election for George W. Bush.
Yet as Souter biographer Tinsley Yarbrough noted, "he doesn't take extreme positions." Indeed, in June, Souter sided with Exxon Mobil Corp. and broke with his liberal colleagues in slashing the punitive damages the company owed Alaskan victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Souter is the court's 105th justice, only its sixth bachelor. He works seven days a week through most of the court's October-to-July terms, a pace that he says leaves time for little else. He told an audience this year that he undergoes "an annual intellectual lobotomy" each fall.
Souter earned his bachelor's and law degrees from Harvard sandwiched around a stay at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar.
He became New Hampshire's attorney general in 1976 and a state court judge two years later. By 1990, he was on the federal appeals court in Boston for only a few months when Bush picked him to replace Justice William Brennan on the Supreme Court.
National Public Radio first reported Souter's plans Thursday night.
___
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged |
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Lockman: Gonna be interesting to see how the Dem's react to total control. All the legislation passed will be owned by them, guess well find out if they have the stomach for it.
stomach for it? they are licking their chops...
....this post was great!
You made me laugh, but you're right...this is a political party's wet dream
Posts: 2321 | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by rhwdetroit: NAFTA can work it just needs to be reformed so it is "equal" to all 3 countries and not be tilting to one or the other more.
No NAFTA will not work. 3 countries? Yes, for now. NAFTA is garbage, not just for the US but for Mexico also.
Problem with you and Americans in general is that are impatient and want a cure right now for everything: Economy, Health, Education etc. He has only been in office more or less for a little over 3 months for christsakes.
I don't need any "government help" for health care. I have good health care. I don't care about it's cure. However, all the talk from our president during the campaign was "fluff" to get voted into office. I really don't believe there is any serious health care reform that will happen in the next 4 years.
Seems you/Americans only want the flow of good and services going one way and not both ways.
You missed the point of this! It has nothing to do with trade at all! Can't see the forest through the trees?????
Didn't we already withdraw some troops from Iraq? As for Afghanistan, we'll why should we leave there anytime soon. Iraq was wrong and Afghanistan was right. It's pretty obvious why.
Really? Troops leaving Iraq? It's not that many. Afghanistan? Is it worth it? I don't know, ask Russia.
Conspiracy theories eh? Keeping such bases a "secret" is not very realistic if they exist. Especially with the world wide press/media hounding every corner of the earth. Hell, even Area 51 isn't a secret lol
No, it is not a conspiracy theory. It is a fact that there were at least 5 prisons in Iraq (did you forget about Abu Ghraib-it's still being used) still operated by our government. Others have been turned over to the Iraqi's complete with their detainees. What do you think happened to those detainees? They were never freed. Secret? These places were never a secret and have been in the NEWS in the past when the Abu Ghraib incidents came to light.
I'll reply to your fantasies tomorrow... too tired tonight...
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Lockman: Gonna be interesting to see how the Dem's react to total control. All the legislation passed will be owned by them, guess well find out if they have the stomach for it.
stomach for it? they are licking their chops...
....this post was great!
You made me laugh, but you're right...this is a political party's wet dream
Wet dream indeed... give it to the GOP for f*cking it up by being blind followers to an unpopular President who was clearly abusing his powers as well as the GOP always being close minded... they always do the most damage possible and then cry when their power is taken away...
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Cheney: ‘I think it would be a mistake’ for the GOP to become more moderate. With only 20 percent of Americans self-identifying as Republicans, the GOP is searching for a way forward. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), along with Colin Powell, have said the GOP must move toward the center to expand its tent. In an interview with Scott Hennen, a North Dakota radio host, Cheney declared that becoming more moderate “would be a mistake“:
HENNEN: Some people are wringing their hands saying, “This is an example of why the party needs to change, to hear the message of Specter,” that, as Colin Powell said, the Republican Party needs to moderate. Do you think the Republican Party needs to moderate? Is that the message of the Specter defection, or the state of the party these days?
CHENEY: No I don’t. I think it would be a mistake for us to moderate. This is about fundamental beliefs and values and ideas…what the role of government should be in our society, and our commitment to the Constitution and Constitutional principles. You know, when you add all those things up the idea that we ought to moderate basically means we ought to fundamentally change our philosophy. I for one am not prepared to do that, and I think most us aren’t. [...] So I think periodically we have to go through one these sessions. It helps clear away some of the underbrush…some of the older folks who’ve been around a long time (like yours truly) need to move on, and make room for that young talent that’s coming along. But I think it’s basically healthy. I don’t spend a lot of time or lose a lot of sleep over it. I just think now is the time for people who are committed to get out there and find candidates they like and go to work for them.
RNC Chair Michael Steele has sounded a similar note earlier this week. “All you moderates out there, y’all come. I mean, that’s the message,” Steele said, but added, “Understand that when you come into someone’s house, you’re not looking to change it.”
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
I like it cheney keep bing the complete moron you are and hunch your back even more as you run from the American public. And as far as your party is concerned go by a grave plot for it next to the whig party.
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
LOL...How did I miss this headline! There is now no longer a choice of political affiliation at Liberty University. What a joke!
Liberty University bans College Dems Posted: 09:16 AM ET
(CNN) – Liberty University, the evangelical school in Virginia founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, is drawing heat Friday for its decision to revoke recognition of the College Democrats' chapter on campus.
According to the Lynchburg News & Advance, the school decided a week ago the organization "stood against the moral principles" held by the school and therefore could no longer be sanctioned.
Maria Childress, the staff adviser to the club, told the paper the school — which opposes abortion rights and gay marriage — had issues with the Democratic Party platform.
-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
How am I not surprised. If this country was a one party Gov't under GOP rule we would be all in trouble imo BF... they say Dems take freedoms away but that's not true... just have to watch the actions of the GOP like this one...
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
....this post was great!
