The appointing president had been assured of Souter's credentials by the White House chief of staff, John Sununu, who had known Souter as a conservative member of the New Hampshire Supreme Court when Sununu was that state's Republican governor.
Souter's departure will leave the two oldest justices -- and the most liberal -- still on the bench.
There are plenty of reasons to think that Mr Souter's strategy is as crumpled as his sports jackets.
However, Mr Souter's response is that he is a lot more interested in the big profits to be earned before then.
"What was clear to me was that he hadn't decided that case before he heard it" at oral arguments, recalled Peter Rubin, one of Souter's law clerks that term.
CNN: Souter known as low-key, fierce defender of individual rights
Souter's decision came as something of a surprise, although he has long been known to prefer the quiet of his New Hampshire farmhouse to the bustle of the nation's capital.
Stephanie Cutter is leaving the Treasury Department, where she has served as one of Secretary Timothy Geithner's most senior advisers during the financial crisis, to be the point person for mobilizing public support for Obama's pick to replace retiring Justice David Souter, three senior administration officials said.
In a 6-to-3 decision written by Justice David Souter, the court said that in Miller-El's case, the prosecutors were using a double standard.
At one point, Justice David Souter, the moderate appointed to the court by Bush's father, helpfully gave Tribe a page number.
She spend six years as a trial judge on the U.S. District Court, and would replace Justice Souter as the only justice with experience as a trial judge -- a perspective that would enrich the judgments of the court.
But when confronted by the ideological debates and partisan landscape of Washington, Souter surprised both Sununu and Bush by aligning himself with the court's more moderate wing, which also included Reagan appointee Sandra Day O'Connor.
But perhaps Mr Souter is also looking farther ahead, and expects to get his money's worth from Mr Branson in other ways.
Factors in his decision no doubt include the election of President Obama, who would be more likely to appoint a successor attuned to the principles Souter has followed as a moderate-to-liberal member of the court's more liberal bloc over the past two decades.
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