David Souter, the Supreme Court’s stealth liberal, died at 85, leaving conservatives muttering, “Never again.”
CNN reported that the former justice, appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1990, passed away at his New Hampshire home on November 7, 2024, with the Supreme Court announcing his death the next day.
His 19-year tenure, marked by unexpected leftward drifts, reshaped judicial vetting for decades. Souter’s legacy is a cautionary tale for Republicans betting on “safe” nominees.
Born in Massachusetts in 1939, Souter grew up in New Hampshire, where his banker father and store clerk mother raised him.
He breezed through Harvard, Oxford, and Harvard Law, setting the stage for a legal career that seemed destined for conservative stardom. Yet, destiny had other plans.
Souter cut his teeth as New Hampshire’s assistant attorney general in 1969, climbing to attorney general by 1976.
Appointed to the state’s Supreme Court in 1983, he earned a reputation as a quiet, scholarly jurist. Bush, eyeing a reliable conservative, nominated him in 1990 to replace the retiring William Brennan.
The Senate confirmed Souter 90-9, despite grumblings from the NAACP and National Organization for Women. Labeled the “stealth nominee” for his opaque legal views, conservatives expected him to tilt the court rightward. Oh, how wrong they were.
Sworn in during October 1990, Souter wasted no time defying expectations. Within two years, he helped uphold Roe v. Wade’s core in 1992, cementing a constitutional right to abortion later gutted in 2022. His vote was a gut-punch to the right, birthing the rallying cry, “No More Souters.”
Souter’s rulings often cozied up to the court’s liberal bloc, especially on civil rights, affirmative action, and voting.
“The law for him… wasn’t just an intellectual puzzle,” said former clerk Peter Rubin, praising Souter’s real-world focus. Conservatives, meanwhile, saw a traitor who’d abandoned principle for feelings.
In 1995, Souter penned a unanimous opinion letting Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade exclude an LGBTQ group, citing First Amendment rights. The left howled, but Souter stood firm on free association. It was a rare nod to conservative values, quickly overshadowed by his broader record.
By 2005, he wrote a 5-4 ruling striking down Ten Commandments displays in Kentucky courthouses and schools, arguing government must stay neutral on religion. “The divisiveness of religion… is inescapable,” Souter declared. Critics called it another step toward erasing faith from public life.
Souter’s unease with the court peaked in 2000’s Bush v. Gore, which he saw as politicizing the judiciary. “He was very aggrieved,” said Ralph Neas of People for the American Way. That decision, more than any, showed Souter’s disdain for partisan overreach.
In 2009, at 69, Souter retired, succeeded by Sonia Sotomayor, an Obama pick. “David Souter was a unique man… kind, honorable,” Sotomayor said, gushing over his duty-driven career. Conservatives shrugged, glad to see him go.
Back in New Hampshire, Souter occasionally sat on the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals, filling vacancies.
He threw himself into civics education reform, pushing for better curricula. His post-court life was as low-key as his lunch: plain yogurt and an apple, core included, per Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor.
Souter’s quirks—writing opinions in longhand, shunning cameras, avoiding D.C.’s social swirl—painted him as a relic. “Over my dead body,” he snapped when asked about courtroom cameras. That stubbornness endeared him to some, but not to conservatives still smarting from his betrayal.