Has announced his retirement from the Supreme Court, and a reader emailed me for reaction. My immediate reactions are twofold:
1.) Although it’s no surprise, because Souter is well-known for not particularly liking the DC culture and it’s been general scuttlebutt that he was tired of the Supreme Court five years ago but wasn’t willing to retire because of a certain president likely replacing him with a nutjob, it’s also a bit of a shame. Souter is a really, really good judge, not just because he has a fantastic legal mind (and he does), but because I’ve always found his decisions and dissents are so effortlessly readable, even for a non-legally minded sort. That’s a skill many lawyers and jurists undervalue.
He was also pretty consistently one of the serious civil libertarians on the Supreme Court, often writing decisions or dissents against the death penalty and consistently one of the most interested in prisoners’ rights. These are important issues that don’t often find champions at the highest level of the judiciary in any country.
2.) I would be very surprised if anybody gets the nod to be his replacement over Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit Court. I personally wouldn’t mind seeing Margaret McKeown or especially Kim McLane Wardlaw as the nominee, but both are Ninth Circuit judges and therefore guaranteed to elicit total goddamned psychosis from the right wing. (Granted, that’s going to happen regardless, but there are degrees of this sort of thing.) Sotomayor is moderate and well-respected, nominated to the Appeals Court by George W. Bush, and she’s both a woman and would be the first Hispanic-American nominated to the Supremes. (So would Wardlaw, but them’s the breaks.)
The only other high-profile potential nominees who seem to qualify in most of the areas Sotomayor does are Diane Pamela Wood and Elena Kagan. Wood is from Chicago and would therefore suffer both the “OMG corrupt Chicago” attacks and the “hometown Obama nepotism” attacks. Kagan is terrifyingly smart but hasn’t enough public service under her belt yet, which is probably why she took the job as Solicitor General – she’s being given a seasoning of public service before her nomination. (There is NO WAY Obama doesn’t nominate her before the end of his first term.)
And neither Wood nor Kagan would be particularly “historic,” so – yeah, it’s probably Sotomayor.
Top comment: Predictions:
1: Republicans will claim that Obama plans to nominate Bill Ayers.
2: Republicans will claim that whoever gets nominated is worse than Bill Ayers.
3: Republicans will demand to see a birth certificate and five other forms of identification as proof of citizenship.
4: Michelle Bachmann will uncover the nominee’s covert support for a ‘one-world currency’.
5: Michael Steele will make no less than three attacks on the nominee using slang that went out of style with Boy George. — plus C
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Since the right-wingers are going to go apeshit anyway, I’d pull them from the 9th and be done with it.
Now if only the W appointees would drop over. An entire Supreme court with 9th circuit appointees – they’ll never convict a celebrity, but the corporations wont get away with shit again.
Not so much anymore. The last few wingnut explosions of crazy revolved around a fly-over of New York by Airforce One, renaming the Swine Flu to the H1N1 Virus, and generic “Obama is on TV too much” hysteria.
There is nothing to banal or ordinary that it won’t cause them to double down on teabagging.
I’m curious. Are there judge fansites out there that only lawyers know about? You seemed to whip out those names pretty quickly, but you’re talking about judges from states (and a country) not your own. Do law students get together and gossip about judges around America, or does all this just come from exhaustive study of current caselaw (again, of a country not your own). Regardless, I’m impressed.
Quick, someone check if http://www.whatwouldRuthBaderDo.com is available.
I wonder that too. I mean, I know about Above the Law, and I see that Underneath Their Robes has a nice discussion of possible replacements…but still, I’m a student at a US law school and I’m impressed by MGK’s analysis. (Course, I’m only a 1L.)
“Sotomayor is moderate and well-respected, nominated to the Appeals Court by George W. Bush, and she’s both a woman and would be the first Hispanic-American nominated to the Supremes.”
Samuel Alito. Perhaps you meant the first Hispanic-American woman?
–hza
“– Perhaps you meant the first Hispanic-American woman? –”
I don’t even know. Samuel Alito is a little bitch.
Alito is Italian-American, not Hispanic-American.
They don’t particularly, not beyond the major decisions anyway, but bear in mind that I’m a student editor for a site devoted to goings-on re: the Canadian Supreme Court, and significant decisions and occurrences in the American SC (which is frequently cited as non-binding precedent in Canadian courts) are the sort of thing I need to follow independently.
“Alito is Italian-American, not Hispanic-American.”
So he is.
I don’t know why I have such a strong impression of Alito’s nomination adding a degree of diversity to the Supreme Court. I must have confused my memories of him with Gonzales’ nomination.
–hza
HZA-
There was a lot of press over the notion that Gonzales would have been the first Hispanic nominee. Of course, he was never nominated.
Do you think Obama would nominate someone for ‘historical’ status? I mean, his place in the history books as ‘historical’ is pretty well guaranteed for being the first African-American POTUS. But also, I suspect if he tried picking a minority to be Souter’s replacement, the right-wing would jump on him for favoring minorities over those poor, beleaguered white people who hardly have a chance in today’s dusky-skin-dominated world. Well, I don’t know for sure if they’d do that over a Hispanic nominee, but that’s what comes to my mind.
Is this an American thing?
After he retires he teams up with Dr Strange, right? This is a stealth reason you should write Dr. Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Court.
“I don’t know why I have such a strong impression of Alito’s nomination adding a degree of diversity to the Supreme Court.”
He burnishes the poorly represented “Crazy authoritarians” contingent?
Oh wait, Scalia’s still there. Yeah no, I have no idea how you could have thought that.
“Although it’s no surprise, because Souter is well-known for not particularly liking the DC culture” Indeed. Most of his decision leaned towards Marvel. 😉
Predictions:
1: Republicans will claim that Obama plans to nominate Bill Ayers.
2: Republicans will claim that whoever gets nominated is worse than Bill Ayers.
3: Republicans will demand to see a birth certificate and five other forms of identification as proof of citizenship.
4: Michelle Bachmann will uncover the nominee’s covert support for a ‘one-world currency’.
5: Michael Steele will make no less than three attacks on the nominee using slang that went out of style with Boy George.
So why wasn’t Rex the moutherfucking one of your picks? Because a Rex led Supreme Court would be just about the best thing ever. I mean he could even have his own tagline- the Justice who takes a bite out of crime, literally he leaves them in a pool of their own blood. Also maybe we could get Deadpool on there to.
“After he retires he teams up with Dr Strange, right?”
Yes. This must be.
I don’t know exactly *why* the dark power of Shuma-Gorath should turn out to be uniquely vulnerable to the common-law method employed in the service of a cautious but thoroughly decent progressivism with a 19th-century esthetic sensibility. But that’s why MGK’s the one who should be writing it, not me.
Also at some point there should be a zombie Scalia who Souter gets to brain with a crowbar, or possibly incinerate with a flamethrower.
Well, looks like you called it on Kagan.