Souter's replacement

In today's Daily Beast, a law professor writes that gender and race are not the only kind of diversity we should seek on the Court. He notes that all of the court's current justices (save Stevens, who is older than all the others) come from the rarefied world of elite law schools and the federal appellate bench. (David Souter is the only judge to have presided over an actual trial.) Few have political experience, few have actual legal experience. In contrast, the Warren Court was filled with men who had been politicians, prosecutors, practicing lawyers, and heads of major federal agencies. In short, they had been around the block. He concludes:

Limiting Supreme Court nominees to those who inhabit it[the small world of elite law] largely limits the field to members of a social and intellectual elite who generally lack much in the way of either practical political experience, or contact with people outside their rarefied socio-economic status. The court is ultimately a deeply political institution, and, as the history of the Warren court illustrates, being immersed in politics for much of their lives may serve justices better than having gotten straight A’s at one of two law schools.