Basic
Biography of David Souter
Born: September 17, 1939, Melrose
Massachusetts.
Family: only child of Joseph A. Souter and
Helen Hackett Souter
Education: Concord High School, Harvard,
B.A. 1961, Oxford, Rhodes Scholar 1961-63, Harvard, Graduated 1966
Career Highlights: From 1966-1968 he was a
law associate to Orr and Reno in Concord, New Hampshire. From 1968-1971
Souter became the assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire. From
1971-1976 Souter became the Deputy Attorney General of New Hampshire. Next
during the years of 1976-1978 Souter was the Attorney General of New
Hampshire. In 1978 Souter was appointed to the State trial court. In 1983
Souter was elevated to the Named
to the state trial court in 1978, he was elevated to the state supreme
court in 1983. He served for two months in 1990 as a judge on the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. In July of that year, Souter was
nominated by President George Bush to the Supreme Court and confirmed by
the Senate in October. Souter has been on the Supreme Court ever since.
Legislative Highlights:
Souter was originally thought of as a conservative republican,
Souter is actually a moderate who is a “key to a moderate bloc that
resisted pressures from the political right to undo Court precedents of
the 1960s and 70s.” Justice David H. Souter said the FCC let NextWave keep
its licenses for months without making payments, then seized and resold
them when the commission had buyers willing to pay much higher prices.
Dissenting, Justice David H. Souter said the estimates look to be
inaccurate, and they "broadly saddle employers with a burden unintended by
Congress." Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas joined his dissent.
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992),
which, in an unusual move, he wrote with Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and
Anthony Kennedy. The Court's opinion permitted several state regulations
of abortion to stand, but declined to overturn Roe v. Wade.
http://oyez.org/justices/justices.cgi?justice_id=105&page=experience
http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/s/souter-d1.asp
Extended
Profile
David Hackett Souter of Melrose
Massachusetts is one of the nine Supreme Court Justices. He was sworn in
on October 09, 1990. Originally he was nominated by Former President
George Bush, and was therefore expected to be a Republican. He surprised
both sides because he doesn’t actually belong to either side republican or
democrat. David Souter has been called “a man of unusual and peculiar
sensibilities and also an enigma”(http://oyez.org/justices/justices.cgi?justice_id=105&page=biography)
David Souter who turned 63 last September,
although is not nearly the oldest member of the Supreme Court because John
Paul Stevens is 82 years old. David Souter has only been on the Supreme
Court for 12 years while Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been on the
Supreme Court for 30 years.
There are several reasons as to why he is an
enigma. These reasons are because he tends to side extremely liberal or
extremely conservative. The free congress organization, and organization
which is an extreme conservative says that their hopeful predictions were
“miserably inaccurate.” ”(http://oyez.org/justices/justices.cgi?justice_id=105&page=biography)
Also he was protested against by the Women's Legal Defense Fund because he
has voted to their dislike. He is hated by both democrats and republicans
because he doesn’t just tend to side with just one. Court watchers are
entertained by his “eccentric habits and behaviors.” (http://oyez.org/justices/justices.cgi?justice_id=105&page=biography)
David Souter childhood was mostly spent with
his parents, although every single summer he went to his grandparents
house in Weare, New Hampshire. He still claims that it is his true home.
Joseph Alexander Souter his father worked as a banker in the close state capital of
concord. This was his basic childhood
David Souter really excelled in high school
and college, and in Harvard he was given the magna cum laude. In high
school he was voted “most sophisticated” and also “most likely to succeed”
(http://oyez.org/justices/justices.cgi?justice_id=105&page=biography)
Sure enough he Souter did succeed and his greatest achievement up to now
has been that he is a member of Supreme Court.
David Souter may not be very constant with
whether he is liberal or conservative, although there are several things
that he always does. The first being that Souter has 24 of the same votes
with Sandra Day O’ Conner and also Anthony Kennedy. Both Conner and
Kennedy are moderates and centrists.
All three of these justices prevent supremacy of conservatives in
the Supreme Court. Now it is
clear that David Souter is a moderate, although when he was first
nominated his opinions were nothing special and didn’t exactly show ”many
hints of his judicial predisposition.” (http://oyez.org/justices/justices.cgi?justice_id=105&page=biography).
This quickly changed after he became more at ease and “settled down”.
In State v. Koppel in 1987, Souter dissented
from a decision holding that random checkpoints to catch drunk drivers
were unconstitutional under the New Hampshire Constitution. Subsequently,
the U.S. Supreme Court has held that such checkpoints are legal under the
federal Constitution. This case proves that Souter believes in civil
rights entirely.
When Souter’s confirmation hearings began
one newspaper said that Souter"cast aside the silence that had clothed his
nomination to the United States Supreme Court to reveal intelligence,
poise--and a sense of humor." (http://www.supremecourthistory.org/myweb/justice/souter.htm)
Souter seems to have a bright future ahead of him because he is not alone
on being a moderate. He has two other justices who side with him most of
the time.
Bibliography
http://www.supremecourthistory.org/myweb/justice/souter.htm
http://oyez.org/justices/justices.cgi?justice_id=105&page=biography
http://www.oyez.org/cases/cases.cgi?mode=subjects&command=do_search&andor=any&KEYWORDS=Criminal+procedure%3A+search+and+seizure%2C+other
