May 1, 2009
Souter Confirms Supreme Court Retirement
Obama Announces Departure During Press Briefing, Saying He Is "Incredibly Grateful For His Dedicated Service"
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter was the nation's 105th justice. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)
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Souter informed Obama of his plans in a brief letter Friday. Obama praised Souter and thanked him for his service.
Obama then announced the retirement in the middle during the daily White House press briefing, saying that he told Souter that he is "incredibly grateful for his dedicated service."
The 69-year-old justice is leaving after nearly two decades in Washington. His retirement gives Obama his first pick for the Supreme Court.
The news on Souter was originally reported last night, but not confirmed until today.
"It's not a terrible shock that Souter would be leaving. He has perennially be one of the names listed when folks think about potential retirements," said CBS News legal affairs analyst Andrew Cohen.
A history buff renowned among friends and former clerks as an excellent storyteller with a wonderful sense of humor, Souter headed for his native New Hampshire as soon as he could at the end of the court's term every year.
"He doesn't fit what I think most people would assume, that he's Silent Cal, the Calvin Coolidge-type New Englander," said Meir Feder, a New York lawyer who worked for Souter during his first Supreme Court term.
Souter was appointed to the court in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush after just a few months as a federal appeals court judge, but with many years experience as a prosecutor, attorney general, trial judge and state Supreme Court justice in New Hampshire.
Virtually unknown outside his home state, he was viewed warily both by liberals and conservatives. Liberals feared that his appointment by an abortion opponent would help spell the end of the guarantee of abortion rights. It didn't; Souter in 1992 voted to uphold Roe v. Wade. In the same year he also voted to maintain the court's longtime ban on officially sponsored prayers in public schools.
Conservatives worried that in his praise for the liberal lion he succeeded, Justice William Brennan, Souter was charting a much more moderate course than they would have liked or expected from a Republican nominee.
Eighteen years later, Souter was firmly among the court's liberals.
He resisted the spotlight that has attracted liberal and conservative justices alike.
"He doesn't believe in overexposure," said Thomas Rath, Souter's longtime friend from New Hampshire.
Of the justices who occupied the high court's middle ground, Souter was the one most likely to challenge, in exchanges of written opinions, the aggressively conservative views of Justice Antonin Scalia.
"Souter seems more passionate about taking on Scalia and combating the novelty of Scalia's more restrictive views," George Washington University law professor Mary Cheh once said of him.
When writing for the court in 1994 that a state could not create a separate public school district for Hasidic Jewish children, Souter fended off a Scalia dissent in customary fashion.
"Justice Cardozo once cast the dissenter as `the gladiator making a last stand against the lions.' Justice Scalia's dissent is certainly the work of a gladiator, but he thrusts at lions of his own imagining," Souter said.
Souter was the nation's 105th justice; only its sixth bachelor.
Immediately, speculation has swirled over his possible replacements.
"Fifteen years of frustrated Democratic nominees has caused quite a back-up of candidates. But the Obama Administration already has offered some serious clues about the sort of person they’d like to try to put onto the court," Cohen writes.
"Six weeks ago, when asked about a potential Supreme Court nomination, a senior Administration official told reporters that the White House is looking for people with experience in law and in life, people with character and commitments to a community, people who can make hard decisions but still have empathy for the litigants before them," Cohen said.
Although hailed by The Washington Post as the capital city's most prominently eligible single man when he moved from his native New Hampshire, Souter resolutely resisted the social whirl.
"I wasn't that kind of person before I moved to Washington, and, at this age, I don't see any reason to change," the intensely private Souter told an acquaintance.
At the American academy, when asked how to approach members of Congress to ask for more money for the humanities, Souter suggested focusing on the history buffs in Congress.
But he prefaced his advice with a self-deprecating comment about the failure of judges to persuade Congress to raise their pay.
"You should know that I've been on the judicial salary committee for the last couple of years and the lesson to be learned from that is," Souter said, "whatever I tell you, do the opposite."
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 218 CommentsPosted by weedapeapl at 1:40 PM : May 1, 2009
Fail
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 2:16 PM : May 1, 2009
hungry, how can you fail a test like that???
LOL He gets to you huh? He's okay once you get to know the real him.
Posted by Stuart2560 at 2:17 PM : May 1, 2009
He's one of the stupidest people that has EVER posted on these boards.
If only you could have seen the conversation we had today!!
He thinks that the DMV issues "Motor Voter Cards", that allows illegal immigrants to circumvent the board of elections, and vote in OUR elections WITHOUT having to get a "Voter Registration Card". And the Board of Elections doesn't verify ANY of the information on these "Motor Voter Cards" -- they just mail out a card allowing illegals to vote, without checking ANY information. This is the outcome of the "Motor Voter Act" that Obama got enacted at ACORN's insistence.
I kid you not - this was his argument!!!
It's no wonder he's a conservative!! He's too stupid to be a liberal!!!
Posted by Stuart2560 at 2:31 PM : May 1,
uh..lets see theres Dasher ,Dancer Blixen'Prancer,Comet...uh..Vixen., Dunder,and Fluffy
Posted by Stuart2560 at 2:29 PM : May
well , sometimes it best to not care..
Posted by Stuart2560 at 2:28 PM : May 1,
mean...qualifications mean less than they should
Posted by Stuart2560 at 2:25 PM : May 1, 2009
qualifications ; schmallifications
Posted by ormondbeach1 at 1:43 PM : May 1, 2009
Joe's still recovering from the education I gave him earlier.
Hey ormondbeach1 -- do YOU know what a "Motor Voter Card" is?
Posted by Stuart2560 at 2:16 PM : May
WE'll get agent Moulder and Scully on it
Posted by weedapeapl at 1:40 PM : May 1, 2009
Fail
Posted by hungry1968-15 at 2:16 PM : May 1, 2009
hey hey,, he at least gets a silver star for trying
Posted by weedapeapl at 1:40 PM : May 1, 2009
Fail
Posted by Stuart2560 at 2:13 PM : May 1, 2009
how so?
Posted by Stuart2560 at 1:30 PM : May 1, 2009
were queer and were here!
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See all 218 Comments