President Barack Obama will be overseeing a change in the Supreme Court of the United States now that Justice David Souter is stepping down.

President Barack Obama will be overseeing a change in the Supreme Court of the United States now that Justice David Souter is stepping down.
 
CNN reports that David announced his plans for retirement in a brief letter to the president stating, "When the Supreme Court rises for the summer recess this year, I intend to retire from active service as a justice."
 
The Court’s current session should end some time in late June.
 
The 69-year old justice was appointed by George H. W. Bush in 1990, so he’d been serving in the Supreme Court for 18 years.
 
“He approached judging as he approaches life, with a feverish work ethic and a good sense of humor, with integrity, equanimity and compassion—the hallmark of not just being a good judge, but of being a good person,” the president said of David’s time on the bench. “I am incredibly grateful for his dedicated service.”
 
Now, Barack has to find a suitable replacement for the retiring justice, making this the first one he’ll have to appoint in his presidency. It’s a task he hopes to have completed by fall.
 
“I will seek somebody with a sharp and independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity. 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,” Barack said,  “It is my hope that we can swear in our new Supreme Court justice in time for him or her to be seated by the first Monday in October when the Court's new term begins.”
 
The president noted that he will be consulting both the democratic and republican parties while making his decision on who to appoint in David’s place.

--- Sonya Eskridge

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