Legal News

More on Justice Souter: ?Nothing Like What Anyone Expected?

By Ashby Jones

In the roundup of the weekend’s coverage of the Souter retirement, let’s divide the stories into two camps. In this post, we’ll look at Justice David Souter — the person and his legacy. In our next post, we’ll look at, well, what comes next.

The papers were stuffed with news of the Souter retirement over the weekend. Even the NYT’s Linda Greenhouse came out of her own semi-retirement for a star turn. Greenhouse, in summarizing the justice who shunned most public appearances as well as world travel, writes: “Far from being out of touch with the modern world, he has simply refused to surrender to it control over aspects of his own life that give him deep contentment: hiking, sailing, time with old friends, reading history.”

A story in Monday’s NYT takes a look at the town he longs to return to — Weare, N.H., a simple and unadorned place. "A lot of people would live up here and hate it," said Wilbur A. Glahn, a lawyer who has known Justice Souter since 1975. "But David has got a real love for the people and the land and the simple things here. I'm not sure I know a lot of people who are more connected to a place than he is. It's a very strong, kind of visceral feeling that he has." In this Washington Post story, folks in Weare report that Souter may someday write a history of the town.

Finally, click here for an NYT editorial on Souter’s legacy. “Abiding commitment to core constitutional values is precisely what Justice Souter . . . has demonstrated in his 18 years on the court. To the relief of liberals and the dismay of conservatives . . . Justice Souter turned out to be nothing like what anyone expected.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).