Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter Has Died

[Norbert]

at 85.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/society-culture-and-history/human-rights/retired-supreme-court-justice-david-souter-dies-at-age-85/ar-AA1EttDz?ocid=BingNewsSerp

[Passages]

1. RIP

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. May he rest in peace

[Volaris]

3. He was smart enough to retire early, and get to enjoy it.

And a damn good jurist before that.

[Clouds Passing]

4. Judge David Souter

[sinkingfeeling]

5. R.I.P.

[PCIntern]

6. You know, I always wondered about his appointment...

If I remember correctly, he was appointed under George HW Bush at the request of John Sununu, his fascist chief of staff. At the time, I distinctly recall that he was touted as an intellectual, who was devoted to the law, unmarried, and with no allusions at all whatsoever to his private life, which, as far as I’m concerned is fine, but somewhat mysterious in those days.

People thought he would be an arch conservative justice, but wound up leaving the enemy camp to which he was assigned and was a good guy for his entire term.

There must’ve been more than met the eye with this whole business, and my guess is we will never know.

[JHB]

7. Souter was a misfire in the attempt to put reliably conservative/RW judges on the USSC

During the nomination process, he was called the "stealth" nominee because of his relative lack of a paper trail about his views.

So the GOP thought they were putting a conservative on the court, but then found out he was not as conservatively correct as they liked.

Ever since, they've made very, very sure that doesn't happen again.

[Polybius]

11. As do we

Democratic Presidents haven't chosen someone who turned out to be a (somewhat) conservative since Justice Byron White in the 60's. We've got an excellent vetting system.

[JHB]

12. Not the same. Their process is much more goal-driven...

...and with a solid conservative(/RW) majority, the Roberts court has been delivering on those goals.

[Polybius]

10. He was a registered Republican, so they went by that too

They simply didn't vet him enough. Now, they make sure to vet everyone thoroughly. We do the same, of course, as every Justice chosen by Democratic Presidents since the 60s has been outstanding. Byron White was the last Justice we selected who leaned a bit conservative.

[uponit7771]

8. RIP

[forgotmylogin]

9. I was sleeping in with the clock radio...

I heard “Supreme Court Justice dies…” and sat bolt upright in bed. NPR moved on casually to some report on fresh summer salads or something. I had a sincere “oh, this is The Bad Place…” moment and didn’t remember Souter already had retired.

It was funny cause I’m like why isn’t NPR in panic mode doing a special report about whether it’s gonna be Elon Musk or the pillow guy on the Supreme Court?

[senseandsensibility]

13. RIP

He displayed much needed sanity and humility.