Justice David Souter, who served on the Supreme Court docket for almost 20 years, died Thursday.
Hulton Archive/Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
Hulton Archive/Getty Photos
Former Justice David Souter, who was appointed to the Supreme Court docket by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 however shocked Republicans by becoming a member of the courtroom’s extra liberal wing, has died in his residence in New Hampshire, the courtroom introduced Friday. He was 85.
“Justice David Souter served our Court docket with nice distinction for almost twenty years,” Chief Justice John Roberts stated within the assertion from the courtroom. “He introduced unusual knowledge and kindness to a lifetime of public service.”
On the time of his retirement from the courtroom, Souter was 69 and nowhere close to the oldest member of the courtroom. However he had made clear to mates on the time that he needed to go away Washington, a metropolis he by no means favored, and return to his native New Hampshire.
Souter was a graduate of each Harvard School and Harvard Regulation Faculty. He additionally attended Magdalen School at Oxford College. However his educational pedigree was just one motive he had been considered a considering man’s jurist and a extremely considerate conservative previous to his elevation to the nation’s highest bench.
As soon as appointed and confirmed, he quickly turned a “shock justice.” He bucked the expectation that he would be part of the courtroom’s conservative wing — then led by Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who was appointed to the courtroom by President Richard Nixon and elevated to chief by President Ronald Reagan, and that includes Reagan appointees Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy.
The appointing president had been assured of Souter’s credentials by the White Home chief of workers, John Sununu, who had recognized Souter as a conservative member of the New Hampshire Supreme Court docket when Sununu was that state’s Republican governor.
However when confronted by the ideological debates and partisan panorama of Washington, Souter shocked each Sununu and Bush by aligning himself with the courtroom’s extra reasonable wing, which additionally included Reagan appointee Sandra Day O’Connor.
In a while, Souter turned a full-fledged member of the courtroom’s unabashedly liberal caucus, that includes one more Republican, John Paul Stevens (appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1975).
Souter was unconventional in different methods past his ideological independence. He moved to Washington to attend courtroom classes, however he returned to his beloved roots in New Hampshire at any time when attainable, together with for the courtroom’s lengthy summer season hiatus annually.
Moderately than fly residence, Souter most popular to drive. He additionally resisted different types of modern expertise and comfort, holding out towards the cellphone and e mail and persevering with to jot down his opinions and dissents in longhand, utilizing a fountain pen.
As soon as engaged however by no means married, Souter was as soon as listed among the many capital’s 10 “most eligible bachelors.”
He was by no means a creature of the capital metropolis’s social scene, residing in a spartan house within the metropolis not removed from the Supreme Court docket workplaces on Capitol Hill. Though he served almost 20 years on the excessive courtroom, he made no secret of his choice for the life-style and tempo of his native rural New Hampshire.
