Souter’s influence still resonating 16 years after he left the Supreme Court

Justice David Souter, touted as a steadfast conservative for the Supreme Court in 1990, soon revealed himself as the opposite.

Justice David Souter, touted as a steadfast conservative for the Supreme Court in 1990, soon revealed himself as the opposite. He valued constitutional privacy, individual equality and the separation of church and state. And in 1992, when the justices confronted a major test of abortion rights, he unflinchingly cast a vote to affirm Roe v. Wade. From the elevated courtroom bench that June 29, 1992, morning, as Souter read his portion of the opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, he emphasized regard for the 1973 precedent and the court’s “promise of constancy.” “Like the character of an individual,” the New Hampshire native said in his distinctive Yankee drawl, “the legitimacy of the court must be earned over time. … The court’s concern for legitimacy is not for the sake of the court but for the sake of the nation to which it is responsible.” When I contacted Souter nearly three decades later, as the court was about to hear a new abortion case (one that would lead to the 2022 reversal of Roe), he asked, “to be excused from voicing recollections of Casey.” In his inimitable manner, he added, “I still think that on a judge’s past decisions his silence is the best course.”