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Hard act to follow

Associate Justice David Souter of the United States Supreme Court has announced his intention to retire from the nine-judge bench. He was nominated by the senior George Bush in 1990 in the expectation that he would agree with the conservative nominees of Presidents Ford and Reagan. Instead, he delivered a series of opinions that weighed all the arguments meticulously and infuriated the neoconservatives who dominated American life for a quarter of a century. In McCreary County (2005), Justice Souter held that displays of the Ten Commandments in courthouses and public schools amounted to governmental endorsement of religion and violated the constitutional separation of faith and the state. In Casey (1992), he preserved the main abortion rights created in the landmark Roe v Wade case in 1973. In 2003, he joined a majority decision upholding the University of Michigan’s affirmative action admissions policy. In New London (2005), Justice Souter upheld the taking of private land by a public authority for the purpose of reviving the local economy. Those close to him have revealed that he was deeply disturbed by the 5-4 ruling in Bush v Gore (2000), seeing it as a crudely partisan decision to suspend the Florida recount and hand the U.S. presidency to George W. Bush. The decision to retire may have been partly motivated by that ruling.

Some of the public bitterness over the Florida episode reflected the perception that the winner of the presidency might get a chance to nominate as many as four new justices, whose rulings would shape American society for decades to come. In the event, President Bush had the opportunity to nominate only two judges, the hard-Right Samuel Alito and the current Chief Justice, John Roberts. As for Justice Souter’s successor, the substantial Democrat majority in the Senate means the new nominee will be confirmed without difficulty. Only two women have ever been Supreme Court justices and President Barack Obama is widely expected to nominate a woman of high judicial calibre and liberal views. The far-Right can be counted upon to attack virtually any nomination as ideologically motivated. But that only confirms that for them, the Supreme Court is primarily a vehicle for their agenda. Mr. Obama was not exaggerating when he asserted that this nomination would be among his most important duties as President. As for Justice Souter, history will remember him as a jurist of integrity and independence who will be a hard act to follow.

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