SCOTUS Justice Souter to Retire Open Thread

UPDATES at end of post include previews of possible replacements.

The Associated Press is reporting that Supreme Court Justice David Souter will soon announce his retirement.

Given the Court's current makeup, do you see this having any impact on its present slightly right tilt?

Also, given how George W. Bush's judicial nominees were hassled and delayed in his two terms, will the Republicans behave like the obstructionist Democrats during the upcoming appointment proceedings, or roll over and give Barack Obama everything he wants?

Exit question: despite Souter's liberal views, if he was going to retire so soon after a transfer of power in the White House, didn't he owe it to the man who nominated him to allow President Bush to appoint his successor, or does ideology trump gratitude and loyalty these days?

*****Update: NPR reports on possible replacements. Wikipedia links have been added inside prospective names:

Possible nominees who have been mentioned as being on a theoretical short list include Elena Kagan, the current solicitor general who represents the government before the Supreme Court; Sonia Sotomayor, a Hispanic judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; and Diane Wood, a federal judge in Chicago who taught at the University of Chicago at the same time future President Barack Obama was teaching constitutional law there.

*****Update II: Michelle Malkin has a good analysis of early frontrunners here.