Souter Retiring, Obama Could Appoint Up to Three Justices

JUSTICE SOUTER RETIRING... DEVELOPING...
To leave 'best job' in 'worst city' ...
Possible Replacements...
FLASHBACK: Obama joins filibuster bid against Alito...
Biden, Clinton, Too...
VACANCY

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.

Apparently it isn't his health or age, it is his dislike for the city, and for all the politics. Can't blame him I suppose.

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.

He definitely isn't a conservative, that's for sure. Goodbye to bad rubbish, that's what I say.

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.

President Obama's choice has an excellent chance of being confirmed by the U.S. Senate, where Democrats now have an advantage of 59 seats to the Republicans' 40.

That's right, anyone he picks will go right on through. Doesn't matter a whole lot in this case, since he will just be swapping liberals. But what about in the future? It is rumored that Obama will have the chance to appoint up to three court justices. THREE. The other two that will likely be replaced are John Paul Stevens, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both libtards. So, even though there is a chance his appointees will turn out more liberal, it's not like it could get too much worse, right? Am I being sarchastic? I don't know anymore.

It's also important to point out that Stevens and Souter were both Republican nominees, and look how they turned out. Ginsburg had the support of Republican Judiciary Chairman Senator Orrin Hatch. So you never can tell, perhaps one of his nominees will turn out more conservative. One can only hope.