Portrait de David Hackett Souter.
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Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the court said in a statement. He was 85 years old.
Souter, who was appointed to the high court in 1990 by his fellow Republican, President George H.W. Bush, and retired in 2009.
Souter, while serving on the court, often vexed Bush and other Republicans by aligning himself with liberal justices in decisions on cases.
One such notable decision was in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which he joined with the majority in upholding the federal constitutional right to abortion first established by the case known as Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court, in its 2022 decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, undid that right to abortion.
In 2000, Souter dissented with liberal justices on the case Bush v. Gore, which halted the presidential election vote recount in Florida, guaranteeing that Bush’s son, George W. Bush, would win that contest.
Souter’s retirement at a relatively young age allowed a new, Democratic president, Barack Obama, to appoint a liberal justice to replace him: Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Federal Appeals Court Judge David Souter of New Hampshire speaks to reporters at the White House 7/23. Souter was nominated by President Bush to replace Justice William Brennan on the Supreme Court.
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After he retired, the bookish bachelor for more than a decade regularly sat as a judge on the U.S Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which handles cases arising out of federal district courts in New Hampshire, as well as Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.
Souter had served for just three months as a regular judge on the First Circuit before Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court.
“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 in a statement on Friday.
“After retiring to his beloved New Hampshire in 2009, he continued to render significant service to our branch by sitting regularly on the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for more than a decade,” Roberts said. “He will be greatly missed.”
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter (L) leaves after addressing the Sandra Day O’Connor Project on The State of The Judiciary’s forum “Striking the Balance: Fair and Independent Courts in a New Era” at Georgetown University Law Center May 20, 2009 in Washington, DC.
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Souter, who was born in Massachusetts, graduated from Harvard, and afterwards was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University in England. He later graduated from Harvard Law School, and after a brief stint in private practice became an assistant attorney general in New Hampshire, and eventually attorney general of that state.
Souter later served as a judge on New Hampshire Superior court and as a justice on the state Supreme Court.
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