Justice David Souter to retire from the US Supreme Court

Justice David Souter has reportedly told the White House that he will retire from the US Supreme Court at the end of June.

Souter’s retirement will give President Obama his first opportunity to appoint a new Supreme Court justice. Experts believe Obama will appoint a female Supreme Court Justice to join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, currently the only woman on the Supreme Court.

Despite being a Republican appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, Souter mostly sided with the liberal justices, and his loss will not result in a change to the court’s ideological balance. Souter was one of the four dissenters in the 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore that sealed the presidential election for George W. Bush, but likewise broke with Liberal colleagues and sided with Exxon Mobil in a ruling that slashed the damages Exxon owed Alaskan victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.