Souter Retires. Can Anyone Hear a Pin Drop?

David Souter has announced his retirement as a U.S. Supreme Court justice for nearly two decades, effective after the current term ends this summer.

Normally, an announcement like this would set off alarm bells in Washington. Those who support Roe v. Wade, civil rights and other liberal causes would be worried that Souter's departure would produce dire consequences if a Republican president chose to make the Court more conservative than it already is.

Not this time. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, now gets to decide who should replace Souter. He's being urged to choose a woman and/or a minority so Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who has been the only female justice since Sandra Day O'Connor left) or Clarence Thomas (the only African-American justice) could have someone to talk to. Or not.

Whoever is nominated would have to face the Senate Judiciary Committee, and then the full Senate for confirmation. As long as this person doesn't have tax problems or nanny issues, the process should run smoothly.

And the nominee wouldn't really change the ideological balance currently on the Court. Obama would essentially be swapping one liberal for another.

There is one drawback that Obama needs to take note of. Presidents have been known to regret their choice of justice because of the simple human trait they sometimes have of changing one's mind over time. Take Justice Souter. He was nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 in the apparent belief that he would help steer the Court to the right. When that didn't happen, conservatives were all over Bush I for making such a bonehead pick in their eyes.

This could only be the beginning. The longer Obama remains in the White House, the more likely it is that other, more conservative Supreme Court justices might want to get out like Souter did before they have to be carried out. Then the ideological balance could shift again, leading conservatives to whine in the same manner their liberal counterparts are doing now. You just can't satisfy some people.