Obama's past plays role in justice choice

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- President Obama's job teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago provides a glimpse of the type of justice he'll select for the Supreme Court.

Former colleagues and students say Obama incorporated the real world into his legal approach always asking how rulings would affect people, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

"He didn't seem to want to talk theory in the classes," said one-time student David Franklin, now a law professor. "He wanted to talk about what worked and what the real-world testing of those theories had yielded."

David Strauss, a professor at the University of Chicago law school, says Obama views politics and legislation as the main engines of social change with the courts "working around the edges."

Obama has said he is looking for a justice with empathy as well as intellect, integrity and respect for the Constitution to replace Justice David Souter who is retiring at the end of the High Court's current term