Retired supreme court Justice David H Souter, the ascetic bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, has died. He was 85.
Souter died on Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the court said in a statement Friday. John Roberts, the chief justice, said Souter, who retired from the court in 2009, “brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service”.
Souter’s retirement gave Barack Obama his first supreme court vacancy to fill. Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina justice.
Souter was appointed by George HW Bush in 1990, and quickly dashed the expectations of the conservative right that had cheered his elevation. He was a reliably liberal vote on abortion, church-state relations, freedom of expression and the accessibility of federal courts.
In 1992, he joined Justices Anthony M Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor, also appointed by Republican presidents, in a three-member affirmation of women’s federally protected right to abortion.
Reversing the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, Souter wrote, would be a “surrender to political pressure. To overrule under fire in the absence of the most compelling reason to re-examine a watershed decision would subvert the court’s legitimacy beyond any serious question.”
A subsequent conservative supreme court majority, including three Donald Trump picks, overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.
Souter was the 105th supreme court justice, and only its sixth bachelor.
In retirement, Souter warned that ignorance of how government works could undermine American democracy, words that appear almost prescient today following Trump’s accession to the White House and attacks on the judicial system.
“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.
His lifestyle was simple and frugal. His lunch, eaten at his desk, was typically a yogurt and apple. He distanced himself from Washington DC’s social scene, and every June, as soon as supreme court work was finished, he drove his Volkswagen Jetta back to the aged farmhouse in Weare, New Hampshire, where his family moved when he was 11.
He enjoyed nature, and would spend the summer recess hiking in the mountains, and reading.
For all his reserve, Souter was beloved by colleagues, court employees and friends. He was a noted storyteller and generous with his time.
Roberts wrote: “Justice David Souter served our court with great distinction for nearly 20 years. He brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service”. Roberts noted that Souter continued hearing cases on the first US circuit court of appeals for more than a decade after he retired from the supreme court.
When Bush plucked Souter from obscurity in 1990, liberal interest groups feared he would be the pivotal vote that would undo Roe v Wade, with some observers calling him a stealth nominee, and the White House aide John Sununu, the former conservative governor of New Hampshire, calling the choice a “home run”.
Souter’s conservatism, however, was moderate, and hardliners were dismayed by his 1992 Roe v Wade affirmation. According to the Washington Post, conservatives who were disappointed in his performance looked at subsequent supreme court vacancies with an attitude of “no more Souters”.
He asked precise questions during argument sessions, sometimes with a fierceness that belied his low-key manner. “He had an unerring knack of finding the weakest link in your argument,” the veteran supreme court advocate Carter Phillips said.
Although he became to be seen as a liberal justice, some of Souter’s rulings were not. In 2008 he sided with Exxon Mobil Corp in slashing the punitive damages the company owed Alaskan victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
He was hailed by the Post as the capital city’s most prominently eligible single man when he moved from New Hampshire in 1990 at the age of 51, but Souter resolutely resisted social engagements.
“I wasn’t that kind of person before I moved to Washington, and, at this age, I don’t see any reason to change,” he told an acquaintance.
He worked seven days a week through most of the court’s term from October to early summer, staying at his office for more than 12 hours a day. He said he underwent an annual “intellectual lobotomy” at the start of each term because he had so little time to read for pleasure.
Before serving as a New Hampshire judge, Souter was his state’s attorney general for two years. He worked on the attorney general’s staff the eight previous years, after a brief stint in private practice.
Souter earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard University, and a master’s degree from Oxford as a Rhodes scholar Washington DC.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
