With all of the issues currently pushing up against the current administration, it is a fair question to ask, why now?
Why would Justice Souter choose this time to announce his retirement? Someone else could speak on the timing based on the time frame where the court is in session, but perhaps Justice Souter sees the current atmosphere in Washington as a dwindling opportunity.
It seems related that Justice Souter would choose this moment, this week in time to announce his retirement. With the other big political announcement this week that Specter made the switch, could it be that Mr. Souter saw his clock running out to maintain the balance of the court?
Mr. Souter is well known as a Justice who protects the institutional integrity of the Court. He has evolved dramatically in his time on the Court, perhaps to maintain the balance he sees as important in the governance of the country.
After Souter was sworn in, he said,
"The first lesson, simple as it is, is that whatever court we're in, whatever we are doing, at the end of our task some human being is going to be affected. Some human life is going to be changed by what we do. And so we had better use every power of our minds and our hearts and our beings to get those rulings right."
Realizing that changing the ideological mix of the court can have heavy implications, this choice is possibly motivated by timing.
Mr. Souter sees that Franken's appointment will create the fillibuster-proof majority, and that fillibuster is the only threat to President Obama to name a true-blue liberal to the court.
Could Mr. Souter be making THIS decision, THIS time in history, because he wants to be replaced by a moderate? Does he see the upcoming appointment of Franken as the end of an opporuntity? Is he signalling to Republicans in Minnesota to continue this fight until a more moderate replacement can be named?