May 03 2009
Justice Souter is retiring
Justice Souter is retiring from the Supreme Court.
It means that President Obama’s next task is to choose a new Justice. He is going to have to navigate a ton of interest groups, not to mention Congress, in whomever his pick is. The sad thing is, the pick is going to be ideologically oriented. No one gets to the Supreme Court because they are the best legal thinker and reasoner of their generation. They get to the highest court in the land by being a politically oriented judge. A judge must wait out until a President of the right party comes into office. A judge must have consistent opinions, even if the cases demand different opinions. This is the type of judge that gets to be a Supreme Court Justice.
Undoubtedly the new Justice is going to be a liberal leaning person, at least from the confirmation hearings and information the public will know. It won’t alter the make-up of the bench because Justice Souter is a liberal-leaning Justice. What this Justice will do once they are on the bench is a different question. The Justices have tenure for life once they are appointed, and so they can change their political views if they wish.
Will it be a woman? An African American? A Hispanic? Who knows. Interst groups want all of that in one person. They would also like the person to be a practicing member of the Islamic and Jewish faiths, someone who stands by abortion, and stands against it. Not all the interest groups are going to be satisfied.
If the person is a good legal thinker, and is fair, then that is all the public can ask for. It is better to have a good thinker on the bench than someone who matches your ideology. The Supreme Court deals with issues that most people don’t want to touch with a ten-foot pole. In order to do that, they need to be able to think. So, hoepfully, this man or woman will be a good thinker.
This is a political nightmare for President Obama. He gets to nominate someone to the Court, which is great, but the backlash from interest groups who don’t get what they want is going to create a nightmare scenario.
