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(description of attackers = 4th paragraph)
LOTS OF ASSUMPTIONS BY POLICE CHIEF RAMSEY IN THIS ARTICLE.

Souter attacked during jog

By Guy Taylor
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter was hospitalized briefly after he was attacked Friday night by at least two youths while he was jogging in Southwest Washington.

Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said Justice Souter was "struck in the jaw" during what investigators think was a random mugging in which the assailants probably were unaware of their victim's identity.

The incident occurred shortly after 9 p.m. as Justice Souter, 64, was jogging near an intersection just north of the Fort McNair recreational area.

The assault appeared to be part of an unsuccessful robbery attempt by two young men, both described initially only as black, Chief Ramsey said. Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that others were involved, the chief said.

Officers of the Supreme Court Police responded to the incident and took Justice Souter to Washington Hospital Center, where he was examined for minor injuries before he was released about 1:30 a.m. yesterday, a court spokeswoman said.

Authorities said Justice Souter "suffered minor injuries" but had returned home and was "OK." It was not clear whether the attack occurred near his home.

Justice Souter is one of the youngest of the nine Supreme Court justices. A bachelor, he reportedly lives on Capitol Hill and jogs regularly.

"It just seems like it was an assault," Chief Ramsey said. "These guys didn't know he was a Supreme Court justice."

Unless and until the assailants — "probably rather young kids" — are arrested, that assumption won't be made certain, the chief added.

In 1996, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the victim of a nighttime purse snatching near the Watergate apartment complex in Northwest.

Security is tight around Supreme Court justices because of the nature of their work. They preside annually over dozens of high-profile and politically sensitive matters before the nation's highest court.

In 1985, a shot was fired through the window of the Arlington apartment of Justice Harry A. Blackmun, author of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. At about the same time, the FBI investigated identical death threats received by Justice Blackmun and others on Capitol Hill.

Protection for the justices is largely the job of the Supreme Court Police, a force of about 125 officers assigned to the court and its surrounding neighborhood. If a justice was traveling outside the area, a U.S. marshal also may provide security, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

Justice Souter, a former attorney general of New Hampshire, was nominated to the court in 1990 by the elder President Bush and swiftly confirmed by a 90-9 vote in the Senate. At the time, the press labeled him the "stealth justice."

Although generally perceived as conservative, Justice Souter is regarded by some court analysts as one of the least predictable justices.

He is not the first justice to be injured while exercising. In 1993, about a year before he joined the court, Justice Stephen G. Breyer was hospitalized with broken ribs and a punctured lung after he was struck by a car while bicycling in Boston's Harvard Square.

• Matthew Cella and John J. Sopko contributed to this report.