On one level, this makes little difference – we will simply trade one liberal justice for another. On another level, this makes it likely that we will have one reliably liberal justice on the high court for decades longer.

Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term. The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction. At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact, he is in the younger half of the court's age range, with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire. Now, according to reliable sources, he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision.

Of all the justices of my lifetime, it is Souter for whom I hold the least respect. A non-entity whose contributions to our nation’s jurisprudence have been negligible, he seems to have been singularly unqualified. Indeed, his appointment ranks up there with George W. Bush’s abortive nomination of Harriet Miers in terms of its weakness – and Justice Souter exemplifies the sort of judge referred to by one senator regarding a failed Nixon Nominee – "[T]here are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters and Cardozos."

But what will we get from Barack Obama? I tend to agree with the assessment that it won’t be a white man – even if that white man has the qualifications and character of a Brandeis, Frankfurter, or Cardozo. It would appear that the top candidates are Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Diane Wood, Harold Koh, and Seth Waxman. To my thinking, Waxman is likely out of the running as simply another white guy – and given that Kagan and Koh are recent Obama nominees to top executive branch positions, I doubt that they are serious candidates fro the position. While Wood has Chicago connections, my money is on Sotomayor – and as a Bush 41 appointee, she would have the advantage of somewhat soothing some elements of the GOP while checking both the female and Hispanic boxes on the quota checklist. Wood, Kagan, and Sotomayor are already targeted for attack by some on the Right, so expect this to be a contentious battle for confirmation.