David Hackett Souter
Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
Incumbent
Assumed office  October 9, 1990
Nominated by	George H. W. Bush
Preceded by	William J. Brennan
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Born	September 17, 1939 (1939-09-17) (age 67) Melrose, Massachusetts
Religion	Episcopalian

David Hackett Souter (born September 17, 1939) has been an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1990. He filled the seat vacated by William J. Brennan. On the Court he usually votes with the liberal wing, though not as consistently as his predecessor. He currently ranks fourth in seniority among the Associate Justices. This is the official portrait of Justice David Souter. ... Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States. ... For the ecclesiastical office, see Incumbent (ecclesiastical). ... is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... George Herbert Walker Bush (born June 12, 1924) was the 41st President of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. ... William J. Brennan, official portrait, 1976. ... is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Melrose is a city located in the Greater Boston metropolitan area and Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... The word Episcopal is derived from the Greek επισκοπος epískopos, which literally means overseer; the word however is used in religious terms to mean bishop. ... is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Circuit Courts of Appeal District Courts Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries  Atlas  Politics Portal      The Supreme Court of the United States (sometimes colloquially referred to by the acronym... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... William J. Brennan, official portrait, 1976. ...

Early life and education

Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts. He is the only child of Joseph Alexander Souter and Helen Hackett Souter. His father, a banker, died in 1976. He spent most of his childhood and adolescence at his family's farm in Weare, New Hampshire. He attended Concord High School in New Hampshire. Melrose is a city located in the Greater Boston metropolitan area and Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. ... Weare is a town located in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. ... Concord High School is a high school in Concord, New Hampshire in the United States. ...

He went on to Harvard College, from which he received his A.B., concentrating in philosophy and writing a senior thesis on the legal positivism of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., the famous Supreme Court justice. In 1961 he graduated from Harvard magna cum laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and chose to attend Magdalen College, Oxford, where he received a B.A. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and an M.A. in 1963. He then entered Harvard Law School, graduating in 1966. Harvard Yard Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, founded in 1636. ... A Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B.) is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or program in the arts and/or sciences. ... The philosopher Socrates about to take poison hemlock as ordered by the court. ... Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. ... Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. ... The Phi Beta Kappa Society is an honor society which considers its mission to be fostering and recognizing excellence in undergraduate liberal arts and sciences. ... Rhodes House in Oxford, designed by Sir Herbert Baker. ... College name Magdalen College Latin name Collegium Beatae Mariae Magdalenae Named after Mary Magdalene Established 1458 Sister college Magdalene College, Cambridge President Professor David Clary FRS JCR President Jessica Jones Undergraduates 395 MCR President Eloise Scotford Graduates 230 Location of Magdalen College within central Oxford , Homepage Boatclub Magdalen College (pronounced... A B.A. issused as a certificate Bachelor of Arts (B.A., BA or A.B.), from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus is an undergraduate bachelors degree awarded for either a course or a program in the liberal arts or the sciences, or both. ... The University of Oxford, located in the city of Oxford in England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... A Master of Arts is a postgraduate academic masters degree awarded by universities in North America and the United Kingdom (excluding the ancient universities of Scotland and Oxbridge. ... Harvard Law School (colloquially, Harvard Law or HLS) is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. ...

New Hampshire politics

After law school he worked as an associate at Orr & Reno in Concord, New Hampshire from 1966 to 1968. But he accepted a position as an Assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire in 1968, beginning a lifelong career in public service. As Assistant Attorney General he worked in the criminal division as a prosecutor. In 1971 Warren Rudman, then the Attorney General of New Hampshire, selected him to be the Deputy Attorney General. Location in Merrimack County, New Hampshire Coordinates: Country United States State New Hampshire County Merrimack County Incorporated 1733  - City Manager Thomas J. Aspell, Jr. ... Official language(s) English Capital Concord Largest city Manchester Area  Ranked 46th  - Total 9,359 sq mi (24,239 km²)  - Width 68 miles (110 km)  - Length 190 miles (305 km)  - % water 3. ... Warren Bruce Rudman (born May 18, 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American Senator from New Hampshire. ...

In 1976, Rudman resigned to enter private practice and Souter succeeded him as the 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 New Hampshire Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1983. The New Hampshire Attorney General is a constitutional officer of the state, under Part II, Article 46 of the New Hampshire Constitution and is appointed by the Governor with approval of the Council to serve a four year term. ... The New Hampshire Supreme Court is the supreme court of the U. S. state of New Hampshire, and its sole appellate court seated in Concord. ...

U.S. Supreme Court

David Souter became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on May 25, 1990, having been nominated January 24, 1990. His old friend Warren Rudman (who had since been elected a Senator) and former New Hampshire governor John H. Sununu - then chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush - were instrumental in both his nomination and his confirmation to the Supreme Court. The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States District Courts: District of Maine District of Massachusetts District of New Hampshire District of Puerto Rico District of Rhode Island The court is based at the John Joseph... Warren Bruce Rudman (born May 18, 1930 in Boston, Massachusetts) was an American Senator from New Hampshire. ... Governor John H. Sununu John Henry Sununu, PhD (born July 2, 1939) is a former Governor of New Hampshire (1983-89) and former White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. ... Order: 41st President Vice President: Dan Quayle Term of office: January 20, 1989 – January 20, 1993 Preceded by: Ronald Reagan Succeeded by: Bill Clinton Date of birth: June 12, 1924 Place of birth: Milton, Massachusetts First Lady: Barbara Pierce Bush Political party: Republican George Herbert Walker Bush, KBE (born...

Later that year, President Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on July 25, 1990, (see [1]), and he took his seat on October 9, 1990, shortly after the United States Senate confirmed him by a vote of 90 to 9 after the Senate Judiciary Committee reported out the nomination by a vote of 14-3. The press called him the "stealth justice" since his professional record provoked no real controversy, and provided very little paper trail. is the 206th day of the year (207th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures (List) State Courts Local Government Other countries Politics Portal      The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the bicameral United States Congress, the... The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (informally Senate Judiciary Committee) is a standing committee of the United States Senate, the upper house of the United States Congress. ...

Souter, along with former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Stephen Breyer, has a reputation for being a strong guardian of the Court's institutional integrity. A traditionalist in this regard, he famously stated, in response to proposals to videotape oral arguments before the Supreme Court, "I can tell you the day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it's going to roll over my dead body". He has also served as the Court's designated representative to Congress on at least one occasion, testifying before committees of that body about the Court's needs for additional funding to refurbish its building and for other projects. William H. Rehnquist has served as the Chief Justice of the United States since 1986. ... Stephen Gerald Breyer (born August 15, 1938) is an American attorney, political figure, and jurist. ...

Initially, from 1990-93, he tended to be a conservative-leaning Justice, although more in the mold of Anthony Kennedy than Antonin Scalia or William Rehnquist. In Souter's first year, Souter and Scalia voted alike close to 85 percent of the time; Souter voted with Kennedy and O'Connor about 97 percent of the time. The symbolic turning point came in 1992 in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the Court reaffirmed the essential holding in Roe v. Wade. Souter and Anthony Kennedy each considered overturning Roe and upholding all the restrictions at issue in Casey. After consulting with O'Connor, however, the three (who came to be known as the "troika") developed a joint opinion which upheld all the restrictions in the Casey case except for the mandatory notification of a husband while asserting the essential holding of Roe, that a right to an abortion is protected by the Constitution. Roe was decided by a 7 to 2 vote, though Casey was 5 to 4. Anthony McLeod Kennedy (born July 23, 1936) has been an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court since 1988. ... Antonin Gregory Scalia (born March 11, 1936[1]) is an American jurist and the second most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. ... William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1, 1924 – September 3, 2005) was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure, who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the Chief Justice of the United States. ... Holding A Pennsylvania law that required spousal notification prior to obtaining an abortion was invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment because it created an undue burden on married women seeking an abortion. ... Holding Texas law making it a crime to assist a woman to get an abortion violated her due process rights. ...

Although appointed by a Republican president, and thus expected to be conservative (see Segal-Cover score), he is usually associated with the liberal wing of the Court. The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. ... Segal-Cover scores attempt to measure the relative liberalism or conservatism of United States Supreme Court justices. ...

After he was sworn in he said, "The first lesson, simple as it is, is that whatever court we're in, whatever we are doing, at the end of our task some human being is going to be affected. Some human life is going to be changed by what we do. And so we had better use every power of our minds and our hearts and our beings to get those rulings right."

Personal

Souter enjoys mountain climbing in New Hampshire during the judicial off-season. He is co-chair of the We the People National Advisory Committee. Justice Souter is not married, though he was once engaged. Official language(s) English Capital Concord Largest city Manchester Area  Ranked 46th  - Total 9,359 sq mi (24,239 km²)  - Width 68 miles (110 km)  - Length 190 miles (305 km)  - % water 3. ...

Because he joined the Court's decision in Kelo v. New London, some New Hampshire residents attempted to secure an eminent domain seizure of Souter's personal residence for the Lost Liberty Hotel. Holding The governmental taking of property from one private owner to give to another in furtherance of economic development constitutes a permissible public use under the Fifth Amendment. ... The Lost Liberty Hotel or Lost Liberty Inn was a proposed hotel on the site of United States Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souters properties. ...

External links

• Supreme court official bio (PDF)
• Project Vote Smart - Associate Justice David Hackett Souter profile

The Rehnquist Court
William Hubbs Rehnquist (1986–2005)
1990–1991:	B. White | T. Marshall | H. Blackmun | J.P. Stevens | S.D. O'Connor | A. Scalia | A. Kennedy | D. Souter
1991–1993:	B. White | H. Blackmun | J.P. Stevens | S.D. O'Connor | A. Scalia | A. Kennedy | D. Souter | C. Thomas
1993–1994:	H. Blackmun | J.P. Stevens | S.D. O'Connor | A. Scalia | A. Kennedy | D. Souter | C. Thomas | R.B. Ginsburg
1994–2005:	J.P. Stevens | S.D. O'Connor | A. Scalia | A. Kennedy | D. Souter | C. Thomas | R.B. Ginsburg | S. Breyer
The Roberts Court
John Glover Roberts, Jr. (2005-present)
2005–2006:	J.P. Stevens | S.D. O'Connor | A. Scalia | A. Kennedy | D. Souter | C. Thomas | R.B. Ginsburg | S. Breyer
2006–present:	J.P. Stevens | A. Scalia | A. Kennedy | D. Souter | C. Thomas | R.B. Ginsburg | S. Breyer | S. Alito