Official Statements from Eight Members of the Supreme Court on Justice Souter’s Retirement
0 Comments Published by Kedar May 1st, 2009 in Court Procedure, David Souter, Supreme Court, VacancyThe Court issued a press release in which Justice Souter’s colleages expressed their best wishes towards him. I’ve reprinted them in full below:
STATEMENTS FROM THE SUPREME COURT
REGARDING JUSTICE DAVID H. SOUTER’S RETIREMENT
May 1, 2009
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr.:
Justice Souter has served with great distinction on the Court for nearly 20 years. His desire [...]
Justice Souter Formally Announces His Retirement; Will Not Remain Beyond OT08
0 Comments Published by Kedar May 1st, 2009 in Court Procedure, David Souter, Supreme Court, VacancyJustice Souter has officially given President Obama notice of his intent to retire at the end of the current term. His notification seemed to suggest that he will not remain in his position until his successor is seated.
Thanks to SCOTUSblog, we can see the Court’s press release here and Justice Souter’s letter here.
You can read [...]
More On Justice Souter’s Role in Building Consensus
0 Comments Published by Kedar May 1st, 2009 in Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court, VacancyDespite all the talk of Justice Souter’s importance to the Court, the proposition that Justice Souter has had a minimal impact on the Court’s most controversial issues is generally true. Since the beginning of OT06, Justice Souter has issued just 1 of 39 5-4 opinions and this lone 5-4 majority opinion was handed down less [...]
Possible Impact of Justice Souter’s Replacement
0 Comments Published by Kedar May 1st, 2009 in David Souter, Supreme CourtIt would be naive to think that Justice Souter’s replacement won’t have a major impact on the future of the Supreme Court. At a minimum, if President Obama were to simply hit the refresh button on Justice Souter and replace him with a 55-year old version of himself, the liberal wing of the Court would [...]
Nominee Speculation
3 Comments Published by Kedar April 30th, 2009 in Court Procedure, David Souter, Supreme Court, VacancyThe AP wire is reporting on a possible nominees to replace Justice Souter. Most news sources are reporting that President Obama will nominate a woman. He is also under considerable pressure to nominate a minority candidate, and there are only a handful of nominees to meet both of those criteria. Here is the AP list [...]
Sources: Souter to Retire – What Now?
0 Comments Published by Kedar April 30th, 2009 in Court Procedure, David Souter, Supreme CourtSeveral sources are reporting that Justice Souter will retire at the end of the term (NBC here).
It isn’t terribly surprising, ATL had been reporting that he hasn’t hired terms for OT09 and UTR reported on a clandestine meeting between Justice Souter and Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Assuming that the news agencies [...]
New OT08 Term Stats
0 Comments Published by Kedar April 8th, 2009 in Constitutional Law, Court Procedure, Statistics, Supreme CourtWith 43 opinions released, the Court has now released just over half of the opinions it will release for the term. Lets take a look at some of the statistics.
Number of Opinions: 43 cases
Per Curiam: 7 cases (16%)
9-0: 19 cases (44%)
8-1: 1 case (2%)
7-2: 4 cases (9%)
6-3: 5 cases (12%)
5-4: 7 cases (16%)
I read this [...]
Justice Souter’s Concurring Opinion in US v. Navajo Nation
0 Comments Published by Kedar April 6th, 2009 in Constitutional Law, David Souter, Supreme CourtIn US v. Navajo Nation, the Court affirmed their decision from six years ago to limit the royalties that the Native American tribe could collect from coal deals made several decades ago. Justice Souter filed a brief concurrence, printed here in its entirety:
I am not through regretting that my position in United States v. Navajo [...]
ATL Reports That Souter Hasn’t Hired For OT09
0 Comments Published by Kedar February 4th, 2009 in Clerks, Court Procedure, David Souter, Supreme CourtAbove the Law is reporting that Justice Souter hasn’t hired any clerks for OT09 and suggests that it may hint towards his retirement. I think this is an example of ATL jumping the gun and overrating their skill as investigative journalists.
The idea of late hiring isn’t totally unfounded though. Just last year, ATL posted Souter’s [...]
Supreme Introductions
0 Comments Published by Kedar December 20th, 2008 in Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Clerks, Court Procedure, David Souter, John Paul Stevens, John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court(Nearly) every majority opinion features a short introduction before it jumps into the standard I, II, III, IV, etc structure. Some Justices simply introduce the facts very briefly (Scalia), while others discuss the procedural history (Thomas), and others discuss the underlying issue in the case (Souter.) I took a look at all of the cases [...]





