Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who was appointed by former President George H.W. Bush in 1990, died at his home in New Hampshire on Thursday. He was 85.
The Supreme Court released the news, stating that Souter had died “peacefully.” Chief Justice John Roberts said Souter “brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service. 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.”
He served on the nation’s highest court for 19 years, retiring in 2009, allowing former President Barack Obama to fill his position with current Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina justice.
In his nomination announcement, Bush described Souter as “a remarkable judge of keen intellect and the highest ability, one whose scholarly commitment to the law and whose wealth of experience mark him of first rank.”
Born in Melrose, Massachusetts, the former judge graduated from Harvard College, attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he received his A.B. and M.A. in 1963, and then received his law degree from Harvard Law School, per the Supreme Court press release.
Prior to his Supreme Court appointment, Souter served as an assistant attorney general of New Hampshire and deputy attorney general, and, in 1976, became attorney general of New Hampshire.
In 1978, he became an associate justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and in 1983, he was appointed as an associate justice to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire.
During his tenure as a Supreme Court justice, Souter was anticipated to be conservative-leaning in his rulings, “but this prediction proved inaccurate,” according to legal information platform Justia:
“Almost from the outset, he took a moderate or even left-leaning stance on several key issues. For example, Souter declined to erase the constitutional right to abortion when the opportunity arose. He helped to craft an opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey that limited rather than overturning Roe v. Wade. Souter also would have permitted the recount in the 2000 presidential election to continue, contrary to the majority in Bush v. Gore."
In retirement, Souter warned about the possible issue of U.S. citizens lacking understanding of how American democracy functions. In an interview with “PBS NewsHour” in 2012, he stressed the importance of teaching American civics in early education.
“The reason I said I think it’s the most significant problem that we’ve got is that I think some of the aspects of (the) current American government that people on both sides find frustrating are in part a function of the inability of people to understand how government can and should function. It is a product of civic ignorance.”
He added, “I don’t worry about our losing republican government in the United States because I’m afraid of a foreign invasion. ... 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.”