Maine: Barack Obama

Good morning.

Justice David Souter will retire at the end of this term, it is being reported. From McClatchy:

Supreme Court Justice David Souter has advised the White House that he plans to retire, according to published news reports.

The retirement of the 69-year-old Souter will give President Barack Obama his first opportunity to put a stamp on the nine-member court, which remains closely divided between its conservative and liberal wings.

Souter, though appointed 19 years ago by Republican George H.W. Bush, has generally fallen into the more liberal camp. An appellate court judge who wasn't well known nationally at the time of his Supreme Court appointment, Souter has remained personally enigmatic even as he tried to underscore his own personal sympathies.

President Barack Obama issued this memorandum today which outlines the four principles he will use regarding the use of signing statements. It also includes an order that all departments and agencies of the Federal government are to seek guidance from the Attorney General before using previous signing statements in how they enforce the law. Accroding to this article in the NYTimes, George W. Bush issued more signing statements than all the other presidents combined.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release March 9, 2009

March 9, 2009

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Presidential Signing Statements

For nearly two centuries, Presidents have issued statements addressing constitutional or other legal questions upon signing bills into law (signing statements).

Good afternoon.

President Barack Obama convened a summit on health care reform, but according to this report from Democracy Now!, it may have been better labeled a summit on health insuance:

JUAN GONZALEZ: President Barack Obama convened 120 experts to the White House Thursday for a summit on healthcare. Participants included doctors, health insurance companies, lawmakers and patients. Obama vowed to make passing healthcare reform a priority this year.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In this effort, every voice has to be heard. Every idea must be considered. Every option must be on the table. There should be no sacred cows. Each of us must accept that none of us will get everything that we want and that no proposal for reform will be perfect.

h/t Harry Shearer

Via the Independent the lede says it all:

Less than a month after signing an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, President Barack Obama has quietly agreed to keep denying the right to trial to hundreds more terror suspects held at a makeshift camp in Afghanistan that human rights lawyers have dubbed "Obama's Guantanamo".

In a single-sentence answer filed with a Washington court, the administration dashed hopes that it would immediately rip up Bush-era policies that have kept more than 600 prisoners in legal limbo and in rudimentary conditions at the Bagram air base, north of Kabul.

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Apart from staff at the International Red Cross, human rights groups and journalists have been barred from Bagram, where former prisoners say they were tortured by being shackled to the ceiling of isolation cells and deprived of sleep.