May 1, 2009 11:00 am US/Eastern
Supreme Court Justice David Souter To Retire
Retirement Gives Obama Chance To Nominate Replacement
Centrist Justice Will Remain In Place Until A Successor Is Appointed, NPR Reports
WASHINGTON (CBS News) ―
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Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term. Souter, 69, has informed the White House of his decision and plans to return to his native New Hampshire according to NPR, which first reported the story. (File)
CBS
Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning retire at the end of the current court term. Souter, 69, has informed the White House of his decision and plans to return to his native New Hampshire according to NPR,
which first reported the story.
According to NPR, Souter will remain on the court until a successor has been chosen and confirmed. The court recently finished hearing a term of oral arguments and will begin issuing decisions this summer before reconvening in October.
A Supreme Court spokesman said that Souter has no comment on the retirement reports, according to Reuters.
"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, mostly because he's never really taken to Washington or to the insider scene that has attracted so many other Justices over the years," said CBS News legal affairs analyst Andrew Cohen.
There were also recent indications that Souter was contemplating retirement. He did not hire new clerks for the next term, which usually happens by now. It is also possible that the new presidential term played a role in his decision.
President Barack Obama will now have his first opportunity to appoint a new justice to the high court.
"Souter's replacement isn't likely to cause any dramatic change on the Court since he's typically held the Court's center and if anything has leaned left over the past several terms. So if Obama as predicted selects a moderate the Court will pretty much retain the balance it has now," Cohen said.
Still, it will be a closely watched decision. Mr. Obama is expected to feel some pressure to appoint a woman to replace Souter. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is currently the only woman on the court, following the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in January, 2006.
Possible Obama choices include Cass Sunstein, the former constitutional law professor and Obama campaign advisor who now heads the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick; Solicitor General Elena Kagan; and former Solicitor General Walter Dellinger.
"Souter was a terrible disappointment to the first President Bush, who appointed him with hopes that he'd be a solid conservative like his contemporary nominee, Justice Clarence Thomas. But that never happened," Cohen said. "Souter went and stayed in the middle."
Souter joined the court in October, 1990. He helped keep abortion legal in this country when he ruled against a ban in 1992 - in a case that essentially replaced Roe v. Wade as the key abortion precedent under law.
He dissented in Bush v. Gore in 2000, which handed the presidency to George W. Bush
One of his more controversial decisions came in the 2005 case Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., an eminent domain case that let the city pass land from homeowners to developers in the name of "public use."
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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