David Souter groupies, take note. The retiring Supreme Court justice will speak Wednesday, May 20 at a fairly remarkable program held at the Georgetown University Law Center.

And don't think you're going to catch this shy guy via the Web or television. Although the overall conference entitled "Striking the Balance: Fair and Independent Courts in a New Era"  is being streamed over the Web, Justice Souter's part of the show will not be.

The program has an excellent array of speakers and panelists, including Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Justice Stephen Breyer, former Solicitor General Theodore Olson and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The conference is sponsored by the Sandra Day O'Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary and the Aspen Institute.

Media Matters is out with a quick study that purports to find a GOP slant in cable television coverage of the retirement of Justice David Souter. As the summary touts:

"In the week following Justice David Souter's retirement announcement, significantly more Republican members of Congress, especially on Fox News, participated in daytime cable news discussions about or touching on the Supreme Court than did Democratic members of Congress and Obama administration officials."

It's an interesting idea for a study, but highly limited.

Look at the numbers. The "significantly more Republican" cast that discomforts Media Matters amounts to only one GOP representative at CNN, compared to zero Democrats. At MSNBC, the "significantly more Republican cast" amounts to three GOP representatives compared to two Democrats.

Suits & Sentences humbly suggests this sample is far too limited to be useful. Indeed, it's a little surprising that in the entire week following the Supreme Court justice's retirement announcement, the number of lawmakers from either party showing up on cable to discuss the matter was so low.

Finally: it actually makes sense for cable news to disproportionately seek out Republican views on this. They will be the presumed dissenters, and it's journalistically most useful to know their opening gambits.  And as for setting up conflict -- because, after all, the media's game is called Let's You and Him Fight -- the best bet is to go with the party out of power.

There were two vacancies on the Supreme Court Monday morning, but David Souter's was not among them.

Justice Souter, fresh from making news last Friday with news of his pending retirement, showed up as usual for the Monday morning release of opinions. The inner cadre of Supreme Court reporters was there, as well; eight or so reporters observing closely as Souter and six other justices took their seats precisely at 10 a.m.

Six?

The seat to Souter's physical and ideological right, held by Justice Antoni Scalia, was vacant. So was the seat at the far end of the array, held by by the new guy, Justice Samuel Alito. Not that their presence was really needed, as the court's brief session was simply used to announce four more-or-less routine decisions and usher in a new batch of attorneys to the Supreme Court bar.

It would be nice to be able to report that Justice Souter, newly unburdened, kicked up his heels a bit; Suits & Sentences was hoping for a Hawaiian shirt, perhaps. But, no. The retiring justice looked a tad swallowed up by the high-backed chair; he is not a large man. He sat silently during the reading of decision summaries and then exited.

Excellent timing for the American Constitution Society, whose previously scheduled Law Day event at the National Press Club happened to coincide with news spreading about Justice David Souter's pending resignation.

It made for tight timing for some, like Slate's Dahlia Lithwick, the panel moderator who had to tear herself away from her own reporting to run the early afternoon event. But panelists Goodwin Liu of the University of California's Berkeley  Law School and Pamela Karlan of Stanford Law School, prior to the program beginning, were able to field questions from needy reporters.

The Los Angeles Times' estimable David Savage, The Politico's Josh Gerstein and, err, Suits & Sentences' alter ego (also here and here ) were among the reporters huddled around the professors before the show began. These are the best kind of sessions, allowing for plenty of give-and-take and follow-up questions. Professor Karlan, for instance, was able to stress her belief that President Obama can take this opportunity to appoint someone from outside the appellate court world.

"I would love to see someone (appointed) with political savvy," Karlan said.

She cited potential examples: Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, of course; but also Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire. It put Suits & Sentences in mind of something President Lyndon Johnson, or perhaps it was Sam Rayburn, supposedly said one time. Speaking about the brainiacs on the court, the aforementioned individual said something like: "I'd be a whole lot more comfortable if any of them had ever been elected county sheriff."

Suits & Sentences vows to find the exact quote.