Souter to retire from Supreme Court

The liberal justice is expected to step down this summer. Some legal experts speculate that Obama will nominate a woman to fill Souter's spot on the high court.

By David G. Savage
LA Times
May 1, 2009

Reporting from Washington — Justice David H. Souter, a New Hampshire Republican who became a key liberal vote on the Supreme Court, reportedly plans to retire this summer, clearing the way for President Obama to make his first nomination to the high court.

Since the court has only one woman among its nine justices, most observers have predicted that Obama will select a woman for the first court opening. There is no obvious successor to Souter, and the administration has had just three months to sift through potential nominees.

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Souter's pending retirement puts another important issue before Obama. The president is a former professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago and has knowledge of the issues before the court. He also knows many lawyers and judges he could nominate.

Obama chose Elena Kagan, dean of Harvard Law School, to be solicitor general, the administration's lawyer before the court. But she has yet to argue a case.

Judge Diane Wood, an appointee of President Clinton to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, is likely to be considered. She has taught at the University of Chicago and knows Obama.

Two other judges who have been mentioned as possible nominees include Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York and Kim Wardlaw of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California.

(Full story here.)