The Supreme Court will hand down the final three opinions of the term tomorrow when it holds its last public session before its summer recess. The Court will also bid farewell to Justice Souter, as it will likely be his last time being seen publicly as a sitting justice. The three cases are Ricci v. [...]

The Congressional Research Service has published an interesting collection of Judge Sotomayor’s past opinions from the Second Circuit. They come to the conclusion that she is hard to categorize but that she generally has fairly rigid adherence to precedent. [h/t How Appealing]

President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice David Souter is the type of decision we have come to expect from the Obama administration. It involved important political considerations and will likely prove to be good enough for liberals but not off-putting for conservatives.
Let me start off with the assumption that she will [...]

Most news sources are now reporting that President Obama is narrowing in on his nominee for the Supreme Court and will likely announce his decision next week, just before leaving on a lengthy foreign trip in early June.
More specifically, Fox News is hypothesizing that the pick will be announced either Tuesday morning or Friday night [...]

President Obama gave the commencement speech at Notre Dame earlier today and spoke primarily about abortion and other social issues. You can find a full recap from the New York Times here.
I don’t ordinarily take note of political speeches coming from the White House, but I have to think about whether or not the President [...]

The Court will be holding conference for the next seven consecutive Thursdays (as opposed to the normal friday conference meeting). We will likely see at least a few opinions and accepted cases every week from now until the Court breaks at the end of June. In the short-term, the Court’s opinion hotline also tells us [...]

The 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 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 [...]

Despite 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 [...]

It 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 [...]