David Souter Biography

Justice David Hackett Souter is the only child of Joseph and Helen Souter and was born in Massachusetts. Justice Souter’s status as a mysterious person was seen when he surprised everyone while he served on the Supreme Court of the United States, voting reliably with the court’s liberal members. He is well known by Republicans as a “home run” nomination to support their ideologies. His family moved to his grandparents’ farmhouse in New Hampshire when he was eleven. For his undergraduate degree, he attended Harvard University where he majored in philosophy and through his senior thesis which was on the legal philosophy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr, he expressed his interest in law. In 1961, Souter graduated magna cum laude and went on to study jurisprudence for two years on a Rhodes scholarship at Magdalen College at Oxford. He returned to Harvard for law school and in 1966, he graduated. At a prominent private firm, Orr & Reno, Souter began his career as a lawyer in New Hampshire and was described by his colleagues as a “natural judge.” In 1968, he accepted a position in the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office after realizing he disliked private practice. Souter became deputy to the state Attorney General, Warren Rudman three years later. Rudman later became a United States Senator and Souter was appointed to take his place when Rudman stepped down in 1976. Souter was also appointed as Associate Justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court two years later. During this time, Souter developed a strong interest in the jury system and familiarized himself with both civil and criminal cases. Governor John Sununu appointed Souter to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire five years later in 1978. Souter was recommended by Sununu, while serving as George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff, for Justice Brennan’s seat in the Supreme Court in 1990. Souter’s only national service role was his three months duration work at the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit as at the time he was nominated. Souter’s professional record in state courts was free of controversy and this led to an easy confirmation to the Supreme Court compared to other appointees who came in after him. His close ties with conservative New Hampshire politicians made a few senators dislike him and they voted against him. Souter then moved towards voting more consistently by the late 1990s with the liberal justices, like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice John Paul Stevens. Souter’s vision of the law and personality shined through in his opinions in court. His writings showed the influence of Harvard Law School and Justice Holmes especially in his decision in Washington v. Glucksberg (1997), when he discussed the importance of the common law. Souter’s opinions varied but expressed a view that law should depend on underlying empirical facts and should change when those empirical realities shift. For example, in Nixon v. Shrink Missouri PAC (2000), Souter stated that courts should be differential to legislative judgments about the need for campaign finance regulations. The Court enforcing federalism-based limits on Congress’s enumerated powers was strongly opposed by Scouter, and the view that the Court should limit the extent to which race can be taken into account in the design of election districts. His consistent outlooks on these issues pushed the Court to take a less aggressive role in limiting the actions of political branches. In the area of religion, Souter strongly favored separation between government and religion, which was evident in his opinion in Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston (1995). Two votes from Souter on important cases stamped his legacy and made him stand out during his time on the bench. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), Souter cowrote an opinion with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor affirming Roe v. Wade, asserting a strong justification for adhering to the Court’s precedent. In Bush v. Gore (2000), Souter agreed with the majority that the recount in Florida was unconstitutional but also agreed with the dissent when they said the Court does not have the authority to terminate the recount process. Souter had expressed his intention to leave Washington, D.C. and return to his native New Hampshire long before President Obama’s election in 2008. Souter announced his retirement once he was sure no other justices had plans to retire in June 2009 and moved back to New Hampshire, where he still lives till today.

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