Free Republic

Retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter, the ascetic bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, has died. He was 85. Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the Supreme Court said in a statement Friday. He retired from the court in June 2009, giving President Barack Obama his first Supreme Court vacancy to fill. Obama chose Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina justice. Souter was appointed by Republican President George H.W. Bush in 1990. He was a reliably liberal vote on abortion, church-state relations, freedom...

SCOTUS 9-0: Election Day Is One Single Day. Listen to oral argument from Foster v. Love (1997):If the state Legislatures would just sit down for an hour and listen to the oral argument in Foster v. Love, they would have such an easy time understanding their plenary authority was triggered at midnight after Nov. 3rd. (You may listen to the audio here.). Let’s examine some of the transcript:Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “It is an election, and it seems to me, being an election it conflicts with the Federal single Election Day.” You can’t canvass for days/weeks on end. As Justice...

Neil Gorsuch was sworn in Monday as the newest member of the Supreme Court, filling the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia after being confirmed by the Senate last week following a controversial rule-change by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to avoid a Democratic filibuster. Gorsuch took took separate constitutional and judicial oaths — the latter at a public swearing-in ceremony at the White House Rose Garden — to become the nation’s 113th justice.

<p>Eric Erickson (@ewerickson), Editor-in-Chief of RedState didn't just toss off that gem. He wrote it, then deleted it, then re-wrote and re-sent it adding the proper hashtags ("LMRM" = Let Me Repeat Myself, "TCOT" = Top Conservatives on Twitter, "RS" = RedState). Made sure he got it just right. See for yourself.</p>

The Washington Post reports that Mitt Romney plans to fortify his communications and messaging team by adding some veteran operatives. However, Romney apparently has no plans to change his inner circle. As longtime senior Romney senior aide Tom Rath put it: ..................................................... Rath was instrumental in David Souter’s elevation to the Supreme Court. ......................................................... But Rath’s own words show that he didn’t make a mistake. Instead, as demonstrated below, he promoted Souter for the Supreme Court knowing full well what kind of Justice his old friend would be.

David Souter, although retired from the U.S. Supreme Court, is still espousing liberal ideas which contradict the Constitution and the intentions of our founding fathers, as he did in the commencement address he recently gave at Harvard. "We want order and security, and we want liberty. And we want not only liberty but equality as well. These paired desires of ours can clash, and when they do a court is forced to choose between them, between one constitutional good and another one. The court has to decide which of our approved desires has the better claim, right here, right now,...

During 0-bama's State of Disunion, he used his congress-rats to help gang up on the Supreme Court. Alito was flailed for mouthing "not true". It was an ugly day for us conservatives, and it was also a confusing day for at least one former leftist, a friend of mine who had turned from being a Hillary supporter to a Ron Paul supporter. [A way yet to go, I admit -- but excellent headway for a 2nd generation yellow-dog.] But 0 did manage to confuse him. Our 'evil' supreme court now schemes to "allow funnelling of foreign money". He's now completely...

Retired Supreme Court justice David H. Souter will be the principal speaker at Harvard University's commencement this spring, the college said today. Souter, a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law School, served on the high court from 1990 until June 2009. While a member of the court, he emerged as a crucial defender of abortion rights and the separation of church and state. “During his years on the nation’s highest court, Justice Souter approached the vital work of judging with a deep sense of independence and fairness, a close attention to the facts of each case, and a clear concern...

For a historian, newly retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter seems exasperatingly shortsighted. He didn’t want cameras filming the court’s public business during his 19 years on the nation’s highest tribunal. Now, he doesn’t want scholars prying into his papers for 50 years. Who’ll be around by then who knew him?

When Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was explaining his decision to become one of the nine Republicans to support the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, he said it was made easier because she would not alter the ideological balance on the Supreme Court. Having her replace Justice David Souter, a regular member of the liberal bloc, would not tilt the court further in that direction, he said. With all due respect to a senator I very much admire, I think he may underestimate the impact of having Sotomayor on the high court. Certainly, there is a world of difference...

WASHINGTON – A closely watched discrimination lawsuit by white firefighters who say they have unfairly been denied promotions is one of three remaining Supreme Court cases awaiting resolution Monday.The court also will say goodbye to Justice David Souter who has announced he will retire "when the court rises for the summer recess." The court intends to finish its work for the summer that day, Chief Justice John Roberts said. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated to take Souter's place, was one of three appeals court judges who ruled that officials in New Haven, Conn., acted properly in throwing out firefighters' promotions exams because...

A stay has been requested to fill Justice Souter's seat until Obama's eligibility for President has been determined. The link www.orlytaitzesq.com/blog1/ shows the image of the document submitted by Dr. Orly Taitz to Justice Souter. This lady is tenacious. She's not giving up and neither should anyone else who believes BO has usurped the Constitution.

Nineteen years on the U.S. Supreme Court and David Souter retires like Rodney Dangerfield: He gets no respect. When the liberal press does praise him, it’s for his logic. Really? Let’s parse the premier sample of his logic. He’s credited with the co-authorship of what has been termed the “Mystery of Life” passage in the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” Justice Scalia has made wicked sport of this passage. “Ah, the...

If this analysis is correct, the widely shared assumption that Justice Powell received substantial deference from his colleagues in this area has a rational economic explanation. We tested the Powell business deference/expertise hypothesis by looking at the proportion of important securities and corporate cases assigned to him during his tenure on the Court. As a proxy for the importance of cases decided by the Court, we looked at opinions that found their way into the casebooks. Specifically, we looked at thirty-eight currently used case books on Corporations, Business Associations, Securities Regulation, and Corporate Finance. For each casebook, we counted the...

Did you know SC Justice Souter decided to resign rather than approve the wave of martial law excesses planned for this Fall ? Who says so ? Why, according to the well-informed Orly Taitz website, the information is straight from the hitherto impenetrable files of Russia's FSB (successor to the KGB) !!

Justice David H. Souter's retirement from the Supreme Court will open a window into whether President Obama is truly a coolheaded, moderate technocrat, as claimed by Democrats, or a standard-bearer for some of the left's most extreme ideas, as claimed by Republicans. The stakes are high - the nine justices set national law on divisive issues such as affirmative action, abortion, and religion. But Obama's choice will not shift the court's balance of power, which is divided among four liberals (John Paul Stevens, Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen G. Breyer), four conservatives (John G. Roberts Jr., Antonin Scalia, Clarence...

On his 100th day in office, President Barack Obama started campaigning for reelection in 2012. He went to a small town in Missouri, a red state he didn't carry last year, and boasted that "we've begun the work of remaking America." Indeed, he has begun to do exactly that with trillions of dollars turned over to the executive branch of government by the legislative branch. A few days later, the announced resignation of Supreme Court Justice David Souter gave Obama the additional power to use the judicial branch to remake America into Obama-nation. When asked what sort of a justice...

The unfolding spectacle of which leftist cipher should be appointed by Obama to replace departing leftist cipher, David Souter, on the Supreme Court underscores just how purely ideological justice in America has become. At first blush, conservatives might have taken some hope from Obama's promise to look for "those on the outside" to be on the court: there is no more underrepresented group in government or politics than conservatives, and there is no group more subject to the unfair application of the law than conservatives. The left, of course, does not care at all about the qualifications of any nominee....

You can't like the early debate over Supreme Court Justice David Souter's successor. President Obama says his choice will advance ethnic and gender diversity, but also put someone on the court who has "empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles." Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, wants someone from "outside the judicial monastery, somebody who has had some real-life experience, not just as a judge." Though American Idol judge Paula Abdul would seem to be the best fit, it's clear the Democrats don't want someone who will follow the law, but make it up...

Byron “Whizzer” White was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Kennedy in 1962. By current standards, he would be considered a far-right conservative. He dissented in both Miranda and Roe, calling the latter “an exercise in raw judicial power,” while he authored the majority opinion in Bowers v. Hardwick, which upheld a Georgia anti-sodomy law. White resigned from the Supreme Court in 1993, the first year of Bill Clinton’s presidency. White could have allowed a Republican president to name his successor by resigning during George H.W. Bush’s presidency or holding out until George W. Bush’s presidency, which would have...