Justice David Souter, who passed away at 85, was nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1990 but defied Republican expectations of being a conservative stalwart. Instead, he emerged as a conscientious jurist committed to upholding established legal precedents, including those on abortion and civil rights. While often labeled a liberal, Souter was more about safeguarding the Constitution than fitting a right-wing mold. His nomination was favored due to his limited paper trail and swift confirmation amidst a politically charged atmosphere following the Clarence Thomas hearings.
During the same week that Chief Justice Roberts declared, 'The idea that it's invariably a bad thing to overrule precedent is, I think, quite mistaken,' Souter stood in sharp contrast for his defense of the precedents settled by the generation of justices before him from abortion to civil rights.
Conventional wisdom would eventually describe Souter as a liberal, though this shorthand was probably never fair. His 'liberal' stances more or less amounted to 'let's not take a wrecking ball to the Constitution and established precedent.'
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