Word: souter
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...David Souter came to the supreme court as a man who was expected to make conservatives happy. To put it mildly, it didn't turn out that...
...July 1990, When George H.W. Bush nominated Souter to fill the seat of William J. Brennan, one of the most resolute members of the court's dwindling liberal minority, Bush thought, or at least hoped, that he would be getting a consistently right-leaning justice. What he got instead was a man who helped produce the 5-4 majority that upheld Roe v. Wade in 1992, who frequently ruled in favor of the rights of the accused in criminal cases, who supported gay rights and opposed school prayer. As a nominee Souter had the strong support of Bush's White...
...Souter had been a federal appeals court judge in Boston for just three months when Bush plucked him out of relative obscurity. Before that he had spent seven years on the New Hampshire state supreme court and 10 in the state attorney general's office. Neither job gave him much opportunity to set down his views on divisive issues like abortion rights, affirmative action and gun control. When Justice Thurgood Marshall, another of the court liberals, was asked what he knew about Souter, all he could say was: "Never heard...
...some time to consider his choices. The recent health problems of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer but following surgery in February has returned to the court, already had the White House thinking; indeed, some observers believe that Ginsburg's problems may have delayed Souter's decision, since justices try not to retire at the same time, to allow for an orderly nomination and confirmation process...
...Souter himself hadn't hidden from the new Administration his desire to leave. Outsiders had picked up indications: though Souter has always been the last of his colleagues to choose his clerks for the next term, court watchers had focused with increasing interest on the fact that Souter, alone among the justices, still not yet finalized his picks as of late April...