Retired Justice David H. Souter, who served on the Supreme Court from 1990-2009, died at age 85 on Thursday, the court announced on Friday.
The Supreme Court said that he died peacefully at his home.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined the Supreme Court in 2005, four years before Souter's retirement.
“Justice David Souter served our Court with great distinction for nearly twenty years. He brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service," Roberts said. After retiring to his beloved New Hampshire in 2009, he continued to render significant service to our branch by sitting regularly on the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for more than a decade. He will be greatly missed.”
Prior to joining the Supreme Court, he was a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for several months in 1990. He was also on the Supreme Court of New Hampshire and the state's attorney general.
While on the U.S. Supreme Court, he was largely seen as a moderate and sometimes sided with the court's liberals. One notable instance was he was in the minority in the case Bush v. Gore, as the majority in that case stopped the counting of ballots in Florida in the presidential election, allowing George W. Bush to win the election.
He also voted to uphold Roe v. Wade, which until 2022, enshrined abortion as a right throughout the U.S.
In Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, he was in the majority, joining the court's liberals, in ruling that permitting student-led, student-initiated prayer at football games involving public high schools violates the Establishment Clause.
In Roper v. Simmons, he also joined liberal justices in ruling that the death penalty on offenders who were under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed should be off limits.
In a case involving a University of Michigan diversity program, Grutter v. Bollinger, Souter was in the majority in ruling that special considerations for being a certain racial minority did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment.
