Is Souter going or staying?

March 15, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 last 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.

Talking about the importance of teaching history and the humanities in general, Souter displayed a warmth and wit that is at odds with his image as a Spartan, taciturn New Englander.

“Where history’s understanding is missing, cynicism will take its place,” Souter said at a meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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 today.

Stevens has said repeatedly that he still enjoys the work and relatively light caseload. Ginsburg, a month removed from cancer surgery, has said she plans to serve into her 80s. Ginsburg told law students Friday in Boston that there could be an opening on the court soon but didn’t hint at who might be leaving.

Souter has said nothing about staying or going. He claims to have the world’s best job in the world’s worst city and returns every summer to the same farmhouse in New Hampshire where he has lived for nearly 60 years.

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.

Souter was appointed to the court in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, after just a few months as a federal appeals court judge.