225px-davidsouterSupreme Court Justice David Souter plans to retire from the U.S. Supreme Court when the court’s current term is over at the end of June. Souter will likely stay on until President Obama’s nominee to replace him has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate, National Public Radio reports.

This is the first opportunity to name a new member to the nation’s high court for Obama, a Harvard University-trained lawyer himself who has taught constitutional law.

Given the schedules of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Minnesota Supreme Court — which is hearing oral arguments in the Norm Coleman-Al Franken Senate-election dispute on June 1 — Minnesota may finally have two U.S. Senators again by the time Obama’s nominee to replace Souter comes before the full Senate.

The state’s one sitting Senator, Amy Klobuchar, serves on the Judiciary Committee, which reviews nominees to the high court.

Obama is likely to pick a woman, many court-watchers believe. According to Daphne Eviatar at the Washington Independent (the Minnesota Independent’s sister site), a short list of potential nominees includes:

Elana Kagan, Obama’s Solicitor General

Sonia Sotomayor, a federal appeals court judge in New York who (like Souter) was nominated by the first President Bush

Diane Wood, a federal appeals court judge in Chicago nominated by President Clinton