Souter's exit starts new justice search
WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice David Souter's resignation announcement begins a process that President Obama hopes will end with a new justice on the bench when the next term begins in October.
The Constitution gives the president the power to make lifetime appointments to the high court with the "advice and consent" of the Senate. The course ahead is likely to follow established patterns, although in a politically charged atmosphere, Supreme Court nominations can sometimes take surprising detours.
Outside groups already are weighing in with their choices. The Puerto Rican Bar Association, for example, is launching a national campaign to urge Obama to select U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who sits on the New York-based 2nd Circuit and is of Puerto Rican descent. Other groups, such as the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, urged the president to ensure that the nominee supports abortion rights — a priority Obama has suggested that he shares.
Various interest groups could splinter among women, Hispanics and Asian-Americans — all groups that feel their time has come for representation on the high court. The court has only one woman, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. There has never been a Hispanic or Asian-American justice.
Conservatives also are jumping in to voice their priorities. Wendy Wright, of Concerned Women for America, warned Friday that Obama's interest in a candidate with "empathy" could mean new legal protections for gay men and lesbians. She urged senators to scrutinize any nominee.
Most presidents come into office with a general sense of what they want in a court nominee and an informal list of names. Now that an opening is on the horizon, Obama's top aides will be screening individuals' backgrounds and past writings. The process traditionally has been anchored by the attorney general (now Eric Holder), White House counsel (now Gregory Craig), and chief of staff (now Rahm Emanuel).
"I will seek somebody with a sharp and independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity," Obama said Friday as he announced Souter's resignation during a White House briefing. "I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives — whether they can make a living and care for their families; whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation."
In the past, only the top one or two candidates were interviewed by the president. Obama, a Harvard law graduate and former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago, could take a greater role in the screening than past presidents.
His nominee will be subject to confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee, currently chaired by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy. In recent decades, those hearings have taken a week or two, typically after at least a month of preparation by senators and their staffs.
An appointee needs only a majority of the Senate for confirmation, although it takes 60 votes to cut off any potential filibuster that could block a nomination. Now that Obama is within reach of 60 Democratic votes, it is unlikely that his nominee would face such an impasse.
Contributing: Mimi Hall