The first Obama SCOTUS appointment will be happening sooner than expected:
NPR has learned that 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.
Justice Souter is 69 years old, which by SCOTUS standards isn’t that old at all. Justice Stevens is 89, nobody having delivered on Ann Coulter’s suggestion to poison him. Although Souter was a Republican appointee, he usually voted with the liberal wing of SCOTUS. So the Obama appointee, likely to be a solid liberal, won’t change much:
Given his first appointment to the high court, most observers expect Obama will appoint a woman, since the court currently has only one female justice and Obama was elected with strong support from women. But an Obama pick would be unlikely to change the ideological makeup of the court.
No, it won’t change the court’s ideological makeup, but it’s one more opportunity lost for Roe v Wade opponents who thought they could change it with “just one judge“.
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There will also be a vacancy with the retirement of
Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Just when that happens, I don’t
know. It all depends on the state of her health.
Just watch. The Rethuglicans will go all out in attempting to torpedo ANYone Obama nominates, just because it’s Obama doing the nominating. Even if Obama nominated the likes of Priscilla Owen or Janice Rogers Brown.
scotus….kinda sounds/reads like scrotum. coincidences are uncanny sometimes.
hey, aloha. i’m still holding the fort in hawaii. we FINALLY have good weather,it was a wet year fer sure, but i’m sure i won’t gain any sympathy points
Torontonian – I’d think that Stevens and Ginsburg might be considering retirement, but apparently Souter waited until he knew what their plans were before making his decision — he didn’t want to retire if one or both of them were retiring. So maybe not.
I wish Scalia would retire… that would be great. (But highly unlikely.)
JAB
I’m sure they’ll try, but I don’t know if there’s much they can do, really. They’re pretty toothless right now.
Scout – Well hello Scoutie! You’re in Hawaii still? Trust me, a wet winter is a lot better than what we had here — it snowed until the middle of March. Today was the first day in months that the temperature was at the seasonal average. Arrggghh, lonnnnng winter.
Are you coming home for the summer? It’s safe now, at least I think so
Maybe I was out of the room when the decision got made – but what’s with this “SCOTUS” shit?
Is it that hard to say “Supreme Court”?
Like harpervalley said, “SCOTUS” sound’s like you’re talking about some guy’s private parts!
SCOTUS is a commonly-used acronym, and for most people what it immediately brings to mind is the US Supreme Court, not some guy’s nads.
But whatever turns you on
Wow, I’ve encountered grammar and spelling nazis before but never an acronym fascist. I think I’ve seen it all now. FSM bless the internets!
Dr.Prole – They’re everywhere. I thought SCOTUS was pretty common, WTF? And POTUS