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Souter succession speculation

ABC News Supreme Court correspondent Jan Crawford Greenberg canceled her scheduled appearance today at the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Extravaganza in Birmingham. Instead, she stayed in Washington to contribute to the frenzy of speculation about Justice Souter's successor. (The President is chatting with Souter in the photo, which is from the White House's new Flickr photostream.) The Wall Street Journal has a fun graphic with scary mugshots of leading contenders. The Economist includes former President Clinton among the hopefuls. Incidentally, here's how the British magazine explains our Court to its readers, making the War of Independence seem a bit pointless:

Chances to appoint justices to America's Supreme Court come up only rarely. Most presidents can hope to name only one or two candidates to it. And that is considered just as well. The court is the last arbiter on all the country's laws, and the ultimate interpreter of the constitution. Its rulings have shaped America far more decisively than the work of Congress. And justices are appointed for life, making them potentially figures more powerful than the president himself.

CNN lists seemingly everyone imaginable except Bill?including SDFla's Judge Jordan, whom this blog has previously all but endorsed.

As for Souter, he's not yet gone but already seems to be forgotten. Justice Stevens wrote today about Souter that "the Court will suffer a far greater loss than many now realize." That's almost certainly true as even the illuminati of constitutional law seemed at a painful loss today to dig up even one defining, signature Souter opinion in United States Reports. Professor Powe of Texas summed it up: "He couldn?t be my favorite for what he wrote; he was my favorite for what he was." (Souter did write one that shows how crafty he is?Brendlin v. California (2007)?but I'm apparently not on the New York Times' speed-dial.)

Full post as published by Southern District of Florida on May 02, 2009 (boomark / email).