Word: souters
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...vote that stirred the most notice was the tie-breaking yea cast by David Souter, the court's newest Justice. Pro-choice advocates had earlier been encouraged by Souter's sharp questioning of U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth Starr during oral arguments in the Rust case last fall. "The physician cannot perform a normal professional responsibility," Souter had said. "You are telling us ((that the government)) in effect may preclude professional speech." Yet last week Souter concurred in a majority opinion based on that very reasoning. Since the ruling did not directly address the question of a woman's right...
This is not an exam question in a college philosophy course but a moral conundrum at the core of perhaps the most intriguing case facing the U.S. Supreme Court, Payne v. Tennessee. Justice David Souter, the court's swing vote, asked during oral argument last month whether "it really is legitimate to value victims differently depending upon the circumstances of the lives that they have chosen to lead." Tennessee Attorney General Charles Burson's response was unequivocal: "There can be no doubt that the taking of the life of the President creates much more societal harm than the taking...
...ruling was as unsettling as its substance. It came when the videotaped beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles cops has focused national attention on police brutality. But the decision had a deeper importance for the larger direction of the court. It was the clearest signal yet that Souter has given court conservatives a reliable majority in cases involving the rights of criminal defendants. Says University of Chicago law professor Philip Kurland: "They've finally got enough votes...
Even so, not all the court's conservative members could agree on every aspect of the case. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for a majority that included Souter, Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor and Antonin Scalia, argued that introducing an involuntary confession at trial was merely a procedural error. He distinguished such "harmless errors" from "structural defects" such as a biased judge or a denial of the defendant's right to an attorney. Unfair practices of that magnitude, he said, would still trigger an automatic reversal on appeal...
...criminal cases. Among them: Florida v. Bostick, in which the Justices will rule on whether narcotics agents can board a bus and randomly search and question passengers. It is the kind of case that probably would have spurred Brennan's customary defense against unreasonable searches. But Brennan is retired; Souter is in his place; and the long-predicted new era on the court has plainly begun...