Justice Souter To Retire

NPR is reporting that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning on retiring at the end of the court's current session.

Oral arguments have been completed for the year. Rulings and opinions will continue to be issued until the end of June. Its expected that Souter will remain on the bench until a successor is in place. Hopefully that will occur before the court reconvenes in October.

Souter is only 69 years old but wants to leave Washington. He never did like Washington D. C. and has said as much to friends. He wants to go back home to New Hampshire. I liked Souter. Too bad Thomas or Scalia will still be around.

This should set the Republicans hair on fire gearing up for a fight. I sincerely hope they do not make it an ugly situation. The party of NO better not come up with ridiculous arguments against anyone President Obama chooses. We don't need to witness any Rovian dirty tricks or scurrilous commentary during this search for a nominee.

As if President Obama doesn't have his hands full already. Now he'll be searching for a candidate. I'm hoping he'll choose a woman since we only have Ruth Bader Ginsburg and she's dealing with recovering from cancer. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope he can find a suitable woman to nominate. After all, strong support from women elected him and well, there are more of us. Even though this new Justice will not change the make up of the court let's hope we end up with a wise, younger, progressive person.

While we wait for confirmation from Justice Souter let me say this: Thank you sir for your service.