W JUST MISSED GETTING TO FIX THAT MISTAKE OF HIS DAD'S:

Souter to retire from Supreme Court: The liberal justice is expected to step down this summer. Some legal experts speculate that Obama will nominate a woman to fill Souter's spot on the high court. (David G. Savage, May 1, 2009, LA Times)

Justice David H. Souter, a New Hampshire Republican who became a key liberal vote on the Supreme Court, reportedly plans to retire this summer, clearing the way for President Obama to make his first nomination to the high court. [...]

Souter's departure would come as no surprise to his colleagues and others who know him well. He has been in good health and, at 69, is not old by the standards of the high court. But he intensely dislikes Washington, has few friends in the capital and leads a solitary life. He has often said that his mood brightens when he goes home to New Hampshire.

Two of his favorite colleagues -- John Paul Stevens, 89, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 76 -- have been the center of retirement speculation. But Souter had not hired law clerks for the fall, leading many to suspect that he planned to step down at the end of the court term in June.

Souter has also voiced frustration with the court's conservative drift of late.

Yet his retirement will make the Court less liberal.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 1, 2009 6:10 AM