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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Supreme Court Justice Souter to Retire (Legacy Will be as a Liberal, Despite Republican Appointment)

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 10:38 PM

NPR is reporting that Supreme Court Justice David Souter will retire at the end of the court's current term.

This will obviously give Barack Obama his first court pick.

Clearly, Souter's legacy was in being yet another missed opportunity for a Republican president to move the court to the right.

In 1992, for example, Souter provided the pivotal fifth vote for abortion in the famous Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision.

The fact that Souter -- who, at 69, is far from the oldest member on the court -- has chosen to depart so early in Obama's term (as opposed to late in Bush's term) -- underscores the mistake George H.W. Bush made in appointing him to the bench.

Bush Chief of Staff John Sununu vouched for Souter's conservatism and persuaded Bush to appoint him.

The good news for conservatives is that, because Souter was so liberal, his departure is unlikely to change the makeup of the court. It does, however, give Obama the opportunity to pick an even younger Justice who might be around for many years to come.

There is speculation that Obama will appoint a woman to replace Souter.

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vladimir estragon writes:	Friday, May, 01, 2009 1:18 PM
History lesson
"Bush Chief of Staff John Sununu vouched for Souter's conservatism and persuaded Bush to appoint him." That's still nothing like the surprise Earl Warren turned out to be. He was a conservative Republican governor (California) when Eisenhower nominated him as Chief Justice.
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Brianbnc writes:	Friday, May, 01, 2009 9:23 AM
lol
"do every mental scan..." that would eliminate every single liberal out there. I'm all for it.
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Joseph writes:	Friday, May, 01, 2009 9:05 AM
Senator Barack Obama voted to
fillibuster the Sam Alito nomination, as did Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. So if republicans attempt to fillibuster President Obama's SC nomination, liberals shouldn't complain. Of course, if the dems have the 60-votes, it's irrelevant.
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Nee writes:	Friday, May, 01, 2009 7:43 AM
Indeed
Souter turned out to be as left as it gets. The Kelo case is a prime example.
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indyconantidim writes:	Thursday, April, 30, 2009 11:42 PM
Could it be possible
That Janice Rogers Brown is a distant relative?
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Bob Munck writes:	Thursday, April, 30, 2009 11:36 PM
Do It Right
I think we should take a "Howard Families" approach here. Find a young, extremely healthy liberal firebrand with four living, active grandparents and maybe half of his/her great-grandparents still alive. Do every medical scan and test you can think of to screen out disease and congenital conditions. Once they're on the court, keep them on a strict diet and exercise regime, give them frequent checkups, maybe even start clones of their vital organs growing in tanks. With luck, they'll be on the court for the rest of the twenty-first century.
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George writes:	Thursday, April, 30, 2009 11:23 PM
.
It's possible that for practical reasons it might be better to have abortion legal. Or possibly not. But there is no such thing as a "right" to abortion. Roe v Wade was wrongly decided. Anyone who has read that decision and knows anything about constitutional law can see that the facts cited by the majority in that case did not add up to what they needed to in order to invoke substantive due process.
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Keith writes:	Thursday, April, 30, 2009 11:17 PM
Oh Lord
Please let the Obamanation have a moment of clarity. Amen
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Brianbnc writes:	Thursday, April, 30, 2009 10:44 PM
We can pray
We can pray Obama makes the same mistake Bush1 did, but in the other direction. I'll do just that.
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