Retired Justice David Souter died peacefully Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the Supreme Court confirmed.
He was 85 years old and had served on the high court from 1990 to 2009 — a 19-year tenure.
Justice Souter was appointed to the high court by the late President George H.W. Bush, a Republican.
“Justice David Souter served our Court with great distinction for nearly twenty years. He 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,” said Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Justice Souter served as the attorney general for New Hampshire and eventually served on the New Hampshire Supreme Court before being elevated to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990.
He was then quickly appointed to the Supreme Court after being unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
After he retired in 2009, President Obama appointed Justice Sonia Sotomayor to his seat. That made her the first Latina justice added to the bench.
When Justice Souter was first appointed to the court, he had a reputation to be a conservative justice but later moved to the middle and “became a darling of liberals,” according to The Associated Press.
He became a loyal vote to uphold abortion rights, refusing to overturn Roe v. Wade, which the current court recently did in 2022, sending the issue of abortion back to the states.
Justice Souter was also reliably a liberal vote on church-state issues, freedom of expression and access to federal courts.
He was part of the dissent in Bush v. Gore in 2000, which handed President George W. Bush the presidency.
Justice Souter lived a modest life, renting an apartment near the court and returning to a farmhouse in Weare, New Hampshire, where he grew up in the summers when the court was out of session.
He was known to take runs by himself and at one point, was randomly mugged.
For lunch, he often had just an apple and yogurt at his desk. He was not known to be part of the Washington social scene.
In his retirement, Justice Souter worked to improve civics education. He warned that not understanding how government works could undermine democracy.
“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,” Justice Souter said in 2012.
Justice Souter served as the court’s 105th justice and was its sixth bachelor, never having married.
• This article was based in part on wire service reports.
