Souter’s Subtle Reasoning Defied ‘Liberal’ and ‘Conservative’ Labels

Souter’s subtle reasoning defied ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ labels

David Souter defied pigeon-holing as a Supreme Court justice. But “anti-celebrity” certainly applied.

In remembrance of Justice Souter

By David Adler Many Americans may have missed this month the passing of Justice David Souter, who retired from the Supreme Court in 2009, after a distinguished 20-year career on the nation’s high bench, but the oversight would be understandable. After all, it’s not every week, or even every century, that a sitting U.S. president publicly muses about suspending the writ of mandamus, known as the “great writ,” because of its standing, as Chief Jus…

The quiet radicalism of Justice Souter

This article is part of a series on the legacy and jurisprudence of the late Justice David Souter. Charles Barzun is a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia, where he teaches Constitutional Law, Evidence, Jurisprudence, and Torts. He is currently working on a book on the American common law tradition.  I met Justice Souter only once, in the summer of 2019. He agreed to meet with me to discuss the ideas in a law review article I had writ…