#davidsouter — Public Fediverse posts

#SCOTUS Audio is working now.

Chief Justice #JohnRoberts opened Thursday’s session with a lengthy tribute to former justice #DavidSouter, who died last
week.

Up first is Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the #Trump admin.

As expected he’s arguing the power of the #judiciary to issue nationwide injunctions.

#law #immigration #Constitution #AbuseOfPower

#DavidSouter, former #SupremeCourt justice has died

#RIP

He foresaw our fall in 2012:

#RIPDavidSouter #DavidSouter

Photo: Jim Cole/Associated Press via "The New York Times"

Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter Dies at 85

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/g-s1-65326/justice-david-souter-dies

#HackerNews #FormerSupremeCourtJustice #DavidSouter #DiesAt85 #JusticeSouter #RIPJustice #CourtHistory

[Not from the NYT article, still my #DavidSouter 🧵]

#Souter planned his retirement from #SCOTUS to occur during a Democratic presidency as he was keenly aware of Republican designs on turning the court into a political arm.

NPR 2009:
Factors in his decision no doubt include the election of President #Obama, who would be more likely to appoint a successor attuned to the principles Souter has followed as a moderate-to-liberal member of the court's more liberal bloc over the past 2 decades.

#law

In one late June #HabeasCorpus ruling, …3 contentious #Scalia footnotes criticized Souter by name; 3 days later, in one of the term's leading cases, …Scalia in angry dissent dismissed #DavidSouter's majority opinion as "facile" & petulantly invoked Souter's name again & again in criticizing the outcome. Seemingly both provoked & bemused, Souter responded that "Justice Scalia's dissent is certainly the work of a gladiator, but he thrusts at lions of his own imagining."

#SCOTUS #law #judiciary

In one late June #HabeasCorpus ruling, …3 contentious #Scalia footnotes criticized Souter by name; 3 days later, in one of the term's leading cases, …Scalia in angry dissent dismissed #DavidSouter's majority opinion as "facile" & petulantly invoked Souter's name again & again in criticizing the outcome. Seemingly both provoked & bemused, Souter responded that "Justice Scalia's dissent is certainly the work of a gladiator, but he thrusts at lions of his own imagining."

#SCOTUS #law #judiciary

In one late June #HabeasCorpus ruling, …3 contentious #Scalia footnotes criticized Souter by name; 3 days later, in one of the term's leading cases, …Scalia in angry dissent dismissed #DavidSouter's majority opinion as "facile" & petulantly invoked Souter's name again & again in criticizing the outcome. Seemingly both provoked & bemused, Souter responded that "Justice Scalia's dissent is certainly the work of a gladiator, but he thrusts at lions of his own imagining."

#SCOTUS #law #judiciary

In one late June #HabeasCorpus ruling, …3 contentious #Scalia footnotes criticized Souter by name; 3 days later, in one of the term's leading cases, …Scalia in angry dissent dismissed #DavidSouter's majority opinion as "facile" & petulantly invoked Souter's name again & again in criticizing the outcome. Seemingly both provoked & bemused, Souter responded that "Justice Scalia's dissent is certainly the work of a gladiator, but he thrusts at lions of his own imagining."

#SCOTUS #law #judiciary

In one late June #HabeasCorpus ruling, …3 contentious #Scalia footnotes criticized Souter by name; 3 days later, in one of the term's leading cases, …Scalia in angry dissent dismissed #DavidSouter's majority opinion as "facile" & petulantly invoked Souter's name again & again in criticizing the outcome. Seemingly both provoked & bemused, Souter responded that "Justice Scalia's dissent is certainly the work of a gladiator, but he thrusts at lions of his own imagining."

#SCOTUS #law #judiciary

…the most dramatic 1993-94 evidence of #DavidSouter's increasingly influential intellectual leadership of the Court's 6 mainstream members was the growing number of combative references that #AntoninScalia was directing to him in multiple opinions. #SCOTUS insiders emphasize that in person, the 2 justices "like each other,” …but based upon the written record, there is little doubt that Scalia now realizes…that he has decisively lost the struggle for #intellectual leadership of the Court….

#law

But in the following year, as Kennedy reverted to greater agreement w/the Chief Justice, #Souter found himself on the minority side of far more split decisions.

…The 1992-93 decline of the Souter-O'Connor-Kennedy trio led some observers to highlight how Kennedy had moved back rightward, but Paul Barrett of WSJ contended that actually the "most striking development" was Souter's "emerging #liberal streak."

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

…[A] close friend, echoing how Casey "wasn't a surprise," especially given "David's respect for #precedent," stressed that people did not appreciate how "David's a #judicial conservative, NOT a #political conservative.”…

Neither the 1992-93 or 1993-94 terms would prove as significant as 1991-92. The most striking statistic of 1991-92, as Casey exemplified, was the degree to which Anthony Kennedy had shifted away from Rehnquist & toward #Souter & O'Connor.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary

…Casey was the most important case of the 1991-92 term, but there were other impressive Souter successes. He, Kennedy & O'Connor also came together, again joined by Blackmun & Stevens, in a crucial #EstablishmentClause case, Lee v. Weisman, where they struck down the recital of #religious prayers at #PublicSchool graduation ceremonies.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #Constitution #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

[another noteworthy section is on Souter’s confirmation hearings]

When the Senate #Judiciary Cmte hearing began…Senators & reporters quickly realized that Souter was an impressively erudite nominee.…Amid all the concepts & issues he was asked to address, 2…stand out as most revealing: #liberty & #precedent. …Specifically, Souter stressed that in the #DueProcess clause language of the #5thAmendment & #14thAmendment, "the concept of liberty IS NOT LIMITED BY THE SPECIFIC SUBJECTS.”

#DavidSouter

Harry Blackmun's concurrence accurately termed the #Souter-O'Connor-Kennedy joint opinion "an act of personal courage & constitutional principle," & Blackmun added that "what has happened today should serve as a model for future Justices & a warning to all who have tried to turn this Court into yet another #political branch."

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

#Souter closed by reiterating that #Casey, & #Roe, were about far more than simply #abortion:
“A decision to overrule Roe's essential holding under the existing circumstances would address error, if error there was,at the cost of both profound & unnecessary damage to the Court's #legitimacy, & to the Nation's commitment to the rule of #law. It is therefore imperative to adhere to the essence of Roe's original decision, & we do so today."
#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics

“But whatever the premises of opposition may be, only the most convincing justification under accepted standards of #precedent could suffice to demonstrate that a later decision overruling the first was anything but a #surrender to #political pressure, & an unjustified repudiation of the principle on which the Court staked its #authority….So to overrule under fire in the absence of the most compelling reason to re-examine a #watershed decision would subvert the Court's #legitimacy…”
#DavidSouter

“But when the Court does act in this way, its decision requires an equally rare precedential force to counter the inevitable efforts to overturn it & to thwart its implementation. Some of those efforts may be mere #unprincipled emotional reactions; others may proceed from principles worthy of profound respect.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

“But when the Court does act in this way, its decision requires an equally rare precedential force to counter the inevitable efforts to overturn it & to thwart its implementation. Some of those efforts may be mere #unprincipled emotional reactions; others may proceed from principles worthy of profound respect.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

“But when the Court does act in this way, its decision requires an equally rare precedential force to counter the inevitable efforts to overturn it & to thwart its implementation. Some of those efforts may be mere #unprincipled emotional reactions; others may proceed from principles worthy of profound respect.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

“But when the Court does act in this way, its decision requires an equally rare precedential force to counter the inevitable efforts to overturn it & to thwart its implementation. Some of those efforts may be mere #unprincipled emotional reactions; others may proceed from principles worthy of profound respect.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

“But when the Court does act in this way, its decision requires an equally rare precedential force to counter the inevitable efforts to overturn it & to thwart its implementation. Some of those efforts may be mere #unprincipled emotional reactions; others may proceed from principles worthy of profound respect.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

“It is the dimension present whenever the Court's interpretation of the #Constitution calls the contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division by accepting a common mandate rooted in the Constitution.

"The Court is not asked to do this very often, having thus addressed the Nation only twice in our lifetime, in the decisions of #Brown & #Roe.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

Then #Souter moved to the core of his argument, 2 paragraphs that rank among the most memorable lines ever authored by an American #jurist:

"Where, in the performance of its judicial duties, the Court decides a case in such a way as to resolve the sort of intensely divisive controversy reflected in #Roe & those rare, comparable cases, its decision has a dimension that the resolution of the normal case does not carry.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

"For two decades of economic & social developments, people have organized intimate relationships & made choices that define their views of themselves & their places in society, in reliance on the availability of #abortion in the event that contraception should fail. The ability of #women to participate #equally in the economic & social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their #reproductive lives,” #DavidSouter wrote.

#SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics

That background had not been fully understood by the commentators & Senators who had debated what his 1990 nomination meant for the future of #Roe & other fundamental rights. If they had, what was now happening in Casey would not have come as a surprise.

#Souter's analysis reflected a realism not always found in high court pronouncements:

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

The most eloquent section of the opinion was the discussion of #Roe & the principle of #StareDecisis — Latin for #judicial respect of existing #precedent — that had been crafted principally by #DavidSouter. Souter's words in Casey spoke not only for the Court, but also for the essence of America's judicial heritage & for the very core of Souter's own judicial background.

#SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics

#BreakingNews: Former Justice #DavidSouter, rhe 'stealth' #SupremeCourt nominee who disappointed conservatives, dies at 85

Former Justice David Souter, t...

When announcing decisions from the bench, Justices usually offer a summary or read brief excerpts. On this morning, however, each of the three—first O'Connor, then Kennedy and finally #Souter—orally delivered major portions of the trio opinion. Journalists quickly realized they were witnessing an unprecedented event.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics

“Second is a confirmation of the State's power to restrict #abortions after fetal viability, if the #law contains exceptions for pregnancies which endanger a woman's life or health. And third is the principle that the State has legitimate interests from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting the #health of the #woman & the life of the fetus that may become a child. These principles do not contradict one another; & we adhere to each."

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics

"The essential holding of #RoeVWade should be retained & once again affirmed," they wrote in language that also spoke for Blackmun & Stevens.

"Roe's essential holding, the holding we reaffirm, has 3 parts. First is a recognition of the right of the #woman to choose to have an #abortion before viability & to obtain it without undue interference from the State.…

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

Not since the famous 1958 Little Rock school desegregation case of Cooper v. Aaron, when all 9 Justices signed a ringing reaffirmation of Brown v. Board of Education, had any #SCOTUS opinion been presented to the American people as formally authored by more than one Justice. But now, symbolically invoking the powerful precedent of Cooper, Justices O'Connor, Kennedy & #Souter issued their plurality decision in Casey as an explicit trio opinion.

#DavidSouter #law #judiciary #independence #ethics

In early June, #Souter, O'Connor & Kennedy distributed to their colleagues initial copies of their joint opinion. As David Savage later wrote in The Los Angeles Times: "Rehnquist & Scalia were stunned. So, too, was Blackmun." And so, on Monday morning, June 29, 1992, the final day of the term, commentators were unprepared for the result in #PlannedParenthoodVCasey.

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #RoeVWade #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

Well before Rehnquist's opinion was circulated to other Justices in late May, Kennedy privately joined #DavidSouter & O'Connor in preparing an extensive separate statement. Sometimes all 3 Justices, sitting on the couch in Souter's office, would jointly review their progress, & their cooperation led to a stunningly unexpected result: Rather than Rehnquist & Scalia having 5 votes to void #Roe, there were 5 votes -- Souter, O'Connor & Kennedy, plus Blackmun & Stevens, to uphold Roe.

#SCOTUS #law

But while 7 Justices indicated that they would uphold most of the PA restrictions, only 4—Rehnquist, White, Scalia & Thomas—wanted to explicitly vitiate #Roe. O'Connor, Kennedy & #Souter, however, all believed the restrictions could be upheld at the same time that Roe was left standing. While Rehnquist himself undertook the drafting of Casey's apparent majority opinion, Kennedy's surprising stance gave Souter & O'Connor the opening toward an intermediate outcome….

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law

#DavidSouter pressed Starr to concede that if his position prevailed, states could #outlaw all #abortions except perhaps those where a pregnancy directly threatened a #woman's life.

None of Souter's comments had telegraphed a clear position on either Casey or Roe.
…
Not for many years will any outsiders likely see any notes that may have been taken that following Friday morning when the Justices met to vote on Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

#SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics

…Only as Preate's time was about to expire did the 52-year-old #DavidSouter speak up to ask Preate a statistical question about the Pennsylvania provision that would require married women facing unwanted pregnancies to notify their husbands, even if they were separated or estranged, before seeking an #abortion. Then, after #UnitedStates Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr, representing the anti-abortion views of the Bush Admin, succeeded Preate to second the attack on #Roe,

#SCOTUS #law

"Since this Court's decision in #RoeVWade, a generation of American #women have come of age secure in the knowledge that the #Constitution provides the highest level of protection for their childbearing decisions.

"This landmark decision, which necessarily & logically flows from a century of this Court's #jurisprudence, not only protects rights of bodily #integrity & #autonomy but has enabled millions of women to participate fully & #equally in society."

#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary

Former #SCOTUS Justice #DavidSouter died on Thursday at his New Hampshire home, the court said in a statement on Friday. He was 85.

#law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #nonpartisan
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/former-us-supreme-court-justice-souter-dies-court-says-2025-05-09/

🧵Excerpts from a beautiful piece written in the NYT by David J. Garrow in 1994 on Souter’s remarkable contribution in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in which the #SupremeCourt upheld the right to #abortion as established by #RoeVWade:

New Yorker: No More Souters https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/no-more-souters #NewYorker #Podcast/TheNewYorkerRadioHour #SupremeCourtJustices #U.S.Constitution #DavidSouter #Originalism #Roev.Wade

New Yorker: No More Souters https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/no-more-souters #NewYorker #Podcast/TheNewYorkerRadioHour #SupremeCourtJustices #U.S.Constitution #DavidSouter #Originalism #Roev.Wade

New Yorker: No More Souters https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/no-more-souters #NewYorker #Podcast/TheNewYorkerRadioHour #SupremeCourtJustices #U.S.Constitution #DavidSouter #Originalism #Roev.Wade