BREAKING: Longtime Supreme Court Justice Passes Away
A former member of the United States Supreme Court passed away Thursday night, according to a statement by the high court.
David Souter, who was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush and spent 20 years on the bench before retiring in 2009, died “peacefully” at his New Hampshire home, the court said in a statement. He was 85.
For two decades, Souter surprised legal observers and disappointed the conservatives who had hoped his selection would push the high court further to the right on key social issues such as abortion and immigration. Instead, the New Hampshire native aligned himself with the Supreme Court’s most liberal justices, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and John Paul Stevens.
A vocal proponent of civic education, Souter in retirement warned about the perils of a populace ignorant about the inner workings of government.
“What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible. And when the problems get bad enough … some one person will come forward and say, ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’ That is how the Roman republic fell,” Souter said in a 2012 interview.
Shy and unmarried, Souter was always unsuited for the machinations of Washington. He frequently ate yogurt and an apple at his desk for lunch and counted the days until he could leave town for the summer, hopping in his Volkswagen Jetta to head for the New Hampshire countryside, the AP reports.
“I wasn’t that kind of person before I moved to Washington, and, at this age, I don’t see any reason to change,” the intensely private Souter told an acquaintance.
An avid hiker, Souter spent most of his personal time away from the halls of power and in the White Mountains or at his family farm in Weare, New Hampshire.
His retirement at the unusually youthful age of 69 gave former President Barack Obama his first opportunity to fill a court seat, which went to Sonia Sotomayor.
Colleagues recalled Souter as a gifted orator, storyteller, beloved friend, and consummate scholar of the law.
“Justice David Souter served our Court with great distinction for nearly twenty years. He brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service,” Chief Justice John Roberts said.
Early in his tenure, Souter had been regarded as a moderate-to-conservative pick by Bush Sr. But he soon joined the court’s liberal faction in upholding abortion protections for women. He sided against the majority in the 2000 Bush v. Gore decision and was appalled by conservative colleagues accepting jurisdiction of an appeal brought by lawyers for Bush, who was ahead by just hundreds of votes and wanted to stop the Florida recount at all costs, according to the New York Times.
Taking the case, he wrote in a dissent, would tarnish “the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”
The outcome of the 2000 election left Souter deeply depressed, former colleagues said.
“There were times when David Souter thought of Bush v. Gore and wept,” author Jeffrey Toobin wrote in his 2007 book “The Nine” about the justices who decided the results of the election.
Over time, Souter’s mood and outlook on his role in history gradually improved, and he ultimately chose to stay on the court past the administration of George W. Bush with the hope that President Obama would win the 2008 election. With the confirmation of Justice Sotomayor, his final wish ultimately came to pass.