Retired SCOTUS Justice David Souter Dies At Age 85

ABC News reports:

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a lifelong public servant, judicial moderate and advocate for humanities and civics education, has died. He was 85 years old.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said of Souter: “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.”

Souter was nominated in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush, who praised him as “a remarkable judge of keen intellect and the highest ability.” In more than 19 years on the bench, he authored notable opinions on abortion, religion and property rights.

The New York Times reports:

A shy man who never married and who much preferred an evening alone with a good book to a night in the company of Washington insiders, Justice Souter retired at the unusually young age of 69 to return to his beloved home state. His retirement at the end of the court’s 2008-2009 term gave President Barack Obama a Supreme Court vacancy in the opening months of his presidency. The president named Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the seat.

By the end of his second year on the Supreme Court, Justice Souter had acquired the label that would stick for the remainder of his tenure. He was the justice who surprised the president who appointed him; who left conservative Republicans bitterly disappointed; whose migration on the bench from right to left led to the cry of “no more Souters” when another president named Bush, George W., had Supreme Court vacancies to fill.

In 2018, now-dead crackpot Pat Robertson claimed that Souter was closeted:

“Souter had no record whatsoever. He was a stealth candidate and nobody knew anything about him. Despite a lot of opposition from people like me, the Senate confirmed Judge Souter for the Supreme Court where he became an absolute disaster. He was always on the side of the left. He was a confirmed bachelor and I won’t go beyond that, but there was some latent problems with him. He was really a horrible judge. I don’t know whether he retired or died or what happened to him, but he’s no longer on the bench.”

Robertson was speaking in support of Kavanaugh, who was facing opposition over allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct.