Law-gossip site Above the Law is reporting that Justice David Souter may be thinking about retirement in the near future:
It seems that DHS may -- or may not -- have met recently with Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It also seems -- but correct A3G if she's wrong -- that he hasn't hired law clerks yet for October Term 2009 (even though such clerks would have to start in July, just a few months away).
The meeting with Senator Leahy may or may not have happened--but if Souter has not yet picked up clerks for the next term, we are seeing something interesting develop:
Two possibilities come to mind: (1) Justice Souter is retiring, at the end of this Term; or (2) Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is retiring, and Justice Souter is keeping spots open for some of RBG's hires (for OT 2009 and/or OT 2010). It's a tradition at the Court for justices to take in the refugee clerks of their retired or deceased colleagues.
Souter is rather young for a Supreme Court Justice at 69, so his retirement would be a bit out of left field. That leaves us with the possible retirement of Ginsberg and Stevens in the near future. The key, however, will be if Obama can pick off one of the 5 conservative justices during his presidency. Two of the five are over 70 years old, (Scalia and Kennedy).
My hunch is Kennedy isn't going anywhere--he enjoys the doucheyness of the Court way too much. Scalia, however, with his crown-jewel gun rights decision (DC v. Heller) from last year firmly in place, may be thinking of greener pastures. There were also some rumors a while back that Scalia was gunning for Chief Justice. However, now that the much younger Roberts currently occupies the post (and Obama in the WH for the next 4-8 years), Scalia will probably never see the Chief Justice post. He has less and less of a reason to remain on the bench . . .
The bottom line is it's looking very likely that President Obama is going to get some Supreme Court picks. Hopefully he will not wimp out on us and appoint a bunch of moderates to the Court who will get mowed down by the likes of Thomas, Alito, and CJ Roberts, the fascist firebrands who currently hold great sway over the Court.
We are dealing with the legal equivalence of three Rush Limbaughs on the Court, we don't need a bunch of deal-makers and wishy-washy moderate-types appointed to the Court to combat these true-believers. We will need real liberals who will be able to go toe-to-toe with the hard right Justices.
Obama likely will have the opportunity to restructure the aging liberal wing of the Court in the near future. But he also may have the opportunity to reshape the Court's ideological tilt for the next generation. Which, obviously, would be HUGE.