Washington — Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who was a steady member of the high court’s liberal wing during his tenure despite being appointed by a Republican president, died Thursday. He was 85.
The Supreme Court said Souter “died peacefully” at his home.
“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. “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. He will be greatly missed.”
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Appointed in 1990 to replace Justice William Brennan, Souter was a little-known judge on the U.S. appellate court in Boston when he was selected by then-President George H.W. Bush for the nation’s highest court. He served on the Supreme Court for nearly 20 years, often frustrating Republicans during his tenure as he consistently joined with the liberal members of the court.
Souter stepped down from the Supreme Court in 2009, creating the first vacancy for then-President Barack Obama to fill. He was succeeded by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who made history as the first Hispanic member of the high court and whose appointment did not change the ideological makeup of the high court.
Born in Melrose, Massachusetts, on Sept. 17, 1939, Souter was an only child. He graduated from Harvard University in 1961 and spent two years as a Rhodes scholar at Magdalen College at Oxford. Souter received his law degree from Harvard in 1966 and began his legal career at the private firm Orr & Reno in Concord, New Hampshire.
Souter left private practice to become assistant attorney general of New Hampshire in 1968, followed by deputy attorney general in 1971 and attorney general of New Hampshire in 1976. He then served as an associate justice on the New Hampshire Superior Court and was appointed in 1983 to the state Supreme Court by then-Gov. John Sununu.
Souter’s career on the federal bench began in May 1990, when Bush tapped him for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. He was a judge on the 1st Circuit for only three months before Bush nominated Souter for the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed Souter as the 105th justice by a 90-9 vote, and he joined the high court on Oct. 8, 1990.
Souter had been described as a “stealth” candidate, given that he had not authored many controversial opinions and did not have a lengthy paper trail. Sununu, who was Bush’s chief of staff and recommended Souter for the Supreme Court, said he would be a “home run” for conservatives.
But Sununu’s prediction that Souter would be a conservative justice proved incorrect. Souter joined Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer in allowing the narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions.
He also co-authored the 1992 majority opinion with O’Connor and Justice Anthony Kennedy that reaffirmed Roe v. Wade’s central holding that the Constitution recognizes the right to abortion, but set out a new standard for determining when government restrictions are allowed.
Less than 15 years after Souter’s retirement, a more conservative Supreme Court would go on to overturn the landmark Roe decision and effectively end the use of affirmative action in college admissions.
Souter also was among the four justices who dissented from the 2000 decision in Bush v. Gore and said the Supreme Court should not have stopped Florida’s recount in the presidential contest.
“There is no justification for denying the state the opportunity to try to count all disputed ballots now,” Souter wrote in a dissenting opinion.
Souter returned to New Hampshire after retiring from the Supreme Court but continued to hear and decide cases on the 1st Circuit. Notably, he joined a 2019 decision from the Boston-based appellate court upholding Massachusetts’ ban on certain semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
In 2020, Souter was part of a unanimous decision finding that the Justice Department during President Trump’s first term lacked authority to condition federal law enforcement grants on state and local governments’ assistance with deporting migrants suspected of entering the country unlawfully.
