News of Justice David Souter’s retirement from the Supreme Court continues drive the narrative in many papers and online. Here are some of the latest developments.
Via SCOTUSblog, you can find Souter’s very factual resignation letter to the president here. You can also find the other eight justices statements on Souter here.
The Washington Post reports that President Obama plans to have Souter’s replacement confirmed by the next Term of the Court, which begins on Oct. 5. That would mean he probably needs to submit his nominee to the Senate in June or July.
The White House has also widdled a list down to less than 10 names, which happens to be the number of pictures and backgrounds the Post provides in the paper (coincidence??). From the Post:
The White House, meanwhile, is moving expeditiously toward settling on a nominee. Officials said there are fewer than 10 names on a list of would-be nominees, which will be winnowed as candidates are further vetted in the coming weeks.
The Post spotlights two appeals court judges, Sonia Sotomayor of New York, Diane P. Wood of Chicago and Solicitor General Elena Kagen (who, just as a side note, I used to live exactly one block down the street from until three months ago), has the frontrunners. The Post also mentions Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (more on him later) and Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears.
And over in the New York Times, SCOTUS reporter Adam Liptak has a great analysis of the current court. Liptak discusses how insular and uniform the court has become.
Most interesting graf:
The current court is the first to be made up entirely of former federal appeals court judges. And only a few of those appeals courts at that: seven of the justices served on what might be called the court of appeals for the Acela circuit, in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. (The exceptions are Justices John Paul Stevens, who served in Chicago, and Anthony M. Kennedy, who served in California.)
Sotomayor and Wood are also appeals court judges, hmm.
(Liptak is an excellent reporter, but does anyone else wish Linda Greenhouse would come out of retirement just for the next few months? Just asking…)