Souter, no fan of capital, seems at home in D.C. (yet to hire law clerks for the October term)

[usregimechange]

WASHINGTON – For a guy who often can't wait to leave town and is said to be considering retirement, Supreme Court Justice David Souter gives the impression he's staying put for a while.

The 69-year-old Souter has not said a word about his plans, though he is widely considered to be among the justices who are more likely to retire soon.

In a rare public appearance in Washington this past week, Souter seemed at ease in front of his audience, including a bank of television cameras, and at home in the city he loves to hate. He offered advice about lobbying Congress and even oblique criticism of the Bush administration.

...

With virtually no evidence to go on, it has become conventional wisdom in Washington that Souter is among the three justices most likely to retire soon. The others are his older colleagues on the court's liberal side — 88-year-old John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who turns 76 on Sunday.

...

Unlike the other eight justices, he has yet to hire law clerks for the term that begins in October. But then Souter always is among the last of the justices to select the young lawyers who will help him wade through the roughly 8,000 cases filed in a year.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090314/ap_on_go_su_co/is_souter_staying

[billyoc]

1. Capitol.

[PM7nj]

2. That's just the building.

The city is the capital.

[billyoc]

3. Yes, of course, ty.

:hi:

[LiberalFighter]

4. I hope Souter has been churning out good clerks to fill judge positions in the future.

[Davis_X_Machina]

5. The clerk pool is incredibly deep, incredibly competitive.

You could hire applicants #600-620 or so and not have a staff demonstrably less talented than the top 20.

Better to have troops you can work with, who understand your thinking, than the longest resumes.