Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter Dies

Retired Justice David H Souter has died. He was 85.

Justice Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1939. He graduated from Harvard College, from which he received his A.B. After two years as a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, he received an A.B. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and an M.A. in 1963.

After receiving an LL.B. from Harvard Law School, he was an associate at Orr and Reno in Concord, New Hampshire, from 1966 to 1968, when he became an Assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire. In 1971, he became Deputy Attorney General and in 1976, Attorney General of New Hampshire. In 1978, he was named an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire as an Associate Justice in 1983. He became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on May 25, 1990.

Justice Souter was appointed to the Court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, and retired in 2009, after serving more than 19 years on the Court. He served on both the Reinquist and Roberts courts.

Initially considered conservative, Souter became more liberal as time went on. He became a reliable vote for liberal causes like abortion and church/prayer matters, frequently siding with Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Resquiecat in pace