David Souter

Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts. He spent most of his childhood and adolescence at his family’s farm in Weare, New Hampshire. He attended Harvard University and the University of Oxford (Magdalen College); he was a Rhodes Scholar.

David Souter was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1990, appointed by President George H. W. Bush. The United States Senate approved his seat 90 to 9. The press called him the “stealth justice,” since his professional record provoked no real controversy.

Souter, along with Rehnquist and Breyer, has a reputation for being a strong guardian of the court’s institutional integrity.

Although appointed by a Republican president he tends to side with liberals rather than the conservatives. He dissented from the Court’s opinion on the Bush v. Gore election of 2000.

Souter enjoys mountain climbing in New Hampshire during the judicial off-season.

He is Co-chair of the We the People National Advisory Committee.

After he was sworn in he said: “The first lesson, simple as it is, is that whatever court we're in, whatever we are doing, at the end of our task some human being is going to be affected. Some human life is going to be changed by what we do. And so we had better use every power of our minds and our hearts and our beings to get those rulings right.”