David Souter
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| David Hackett Souter | |
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| Assumed office October 9, 1990 |
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| Nominated by | George H. W. Bush |
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| Preceded by | William J. Brennan |
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Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
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| In office May 25, 1990 – October 9, 1990 |
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| Nominated by | George H. W. Bush |
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| In office 1976 – 1978 |
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| Preceded by | Warren Rudman |
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| In office 1971 – 1976 |
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| Born | September 17, 1939 Melrose, Massachusetts |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
- For the Australian artist, see David Henry Souter.
David Hackett Souter (born September 17, 1939) has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1990. He filled the seat vacated by William J. Brennan. Appointed to the Court by Republican President George H. W. Bush, he usually votes with the liberal wing, though not as consistently as his predecessor. He currently ranks fourth in seniority among the Associate Justices.
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[edit] Legal and judicial career
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Souter worked as an associate at Orr & Reno in Concord, New Hampshire from 1966 to 1968. He accepted a position as an Assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire in 1968, beginning his lifelong career in public service. As Assistant Attorney General he worked in the criminal division, prosecuting cases in the courts. In 1971, Warren Rudman, then the Attorney General of New Hampshire, selected him to be the Deputy Attorney General.
In 1976, Rudman resigned to enter private practice and Souter succeeded him as the Attorney General of New Hampshire. In 1978, he was named an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and was appointed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1983.
David Souter became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on May 25, 1990, having been nominated January 24, 1990. His old friend Warren Rudman (who had since been elected a Senator) and former New Hampshire governor John H. Sununu - then chief of staff to President George H. W. Bush - were instrumental in both his nomination and his confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Later that year, President Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on July 25, 1990, (see [1]), and he took his seat on October 9, 1990, shortly after the United States Senate confirmed him by a vote of 90 to 9 after the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out the nomination by a vote of 14-3. The press called him the "stealth justice" since his professional record provoked no real controversy, and provided very little paper trail.
Souter, along with former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Stephen Breyer, has a reputation for being a strong guardian of the Court's institutional integrity. A traditionalist in this regard, he famously stated, in response to proposals to videotape oral arguments before the Supreme Court, "I can tell you the day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it's going to roll over my dead body." He has also served as the Court's designated representative to Congress on at least one occasion, testifying before committees of that body about the Court's needs for additional funding to refurbish its building and for other projects.
Initially, from 1990-93, he tended to be a conservative-leaning Justice, although more in the mold of Anthony Kennedy than Antonin Scalia or William Rehnquist. In Souter's first year, Souter and Scalia voted alike close to 85 percent of the time; Souter voted with Kennedy and O'Connor about 97 percent of the time. The symbolic turning point came in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the Court reaffirmed the essential holding in Roe v. Wade. Souter and Anthony Kennedy each considered overturning Roe and upholding all the restrictions at issue in Casey. After consulting with O'Connor, however, the three (who came to be known as the "troika") developed a joint opinion which upheld all the restrictions in the Casey case except for the mandatory notification of a husband while asserting the essential holding of Roe, that a right to an abortion is protected by the Constitution. Casey was decided by a 5 to 4 vote. Although appointed by a Republican president, and thus expected to be conservative (see Segal-Cover score), Souter is now considered part of the liberal wing of the Court.
After he was sworn in he said, "The first lesson, simple as it is, is that whatever court we're in, whatever we are doing, at the end of our task some human being is going to be affected. Some human life is going to be changed by what we do. And so we had better use every power of our minds and our hearts and our beings to get those rulings right."
[edit] Personal
Souter enjoys mountain climbing in New Hampshire during the judicial off-season. He is co-chair of the We the People National Advisory Committee. Justice Souter is not married, though he was once engaged.
Because he joined the Court's decision in Kelo v. New London, some New Hampshire residents, backed primarily by the Free State project, attempted to secure an eminent domain seizure of Souter's personal residence for the Lost Liberty Hotel with a dining room called the Just Desserts Cafe.[1]
According to Jeffrey Toobin's book The Nine, Souter has a decidedly low-tech lifestyle. He writes with a fountain pen and does not use email. He has no cell phone, no answering machine, and no television.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Supreme court official bio (PDF)
- Project Vote Smart - Associate Justice David Hackett Souter profile
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| Legal offices | ||
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| Preceded by Hugh Henry Bownes |
Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit 1990 |
Succeeded by Norman H. Stahl |
| Preceded by William J. Brennan |
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1990-present |
Incumbent |
| Order of precedence in the United States of America | ||
| Preceded by Anthony Kennedy |
United States order of precedence as of 2008 |
Succeeded by Clarence Thomas |
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| NAME | Souter, David Hackett |
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION | American judge |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 17, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Melrose, Massachusetts, United States |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
