WH Contacted Sotomayor Before Souter Announced Retirement

[usregimechange]

Federal Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor was first contacted by White House Counsel Greg Craig on April 27, four days before Justice David Souter's retirement was officially announced by President Obama, according to a completed questionnaire she submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon.

"I was contacted by Gregory Craig, White House Counsel, on Monday, April 27, 2009, with respect to the possibility of a future Supreme Court vacancy," Sotomayor wrote. "Between that date and the present, I have had frequent telephone conversations with Cassandra Butts, Deputy White House Counsel, including near daily phone calls after Justice Souter on May 1, 2009 announced his intention to resign at the end of the current Supreme Court term."

http://ninthjustice.nationaljournal.com/2009/06/wh-contacted-sotomayor-before.php

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. why would this be a surprise?

Any moderately intelligent staff would have started out of the gun with a USSC replacement in mind. What we should take from this is that they were consistent, their research early on paid off, and she was the right choice.

[MadMaddie]

2. So the administration had the forsight and information to start

planning ahead....sounds logical...

[shifting_sands]

3. Souter

Do you think Souter didn't give the WH a heads up, there has been talk since Obama took office that Souter wasn't hiring any staff for the summer or next year. Souter has been saying to his colleagues for months that he was only going to stay until GWB was out of office. I expect he told the WH by the end of January

[LiberalFighter]

4. It was probably expected that Obama would have at least 2 vacancies to fill.

And if Obama wanted to make as few mistakes as possible he (his staff) would had gotten ahead of the game. If they had waited until Souter announced they probably wouldn't had had even any possible nominees to consider.