U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter passed away on May 8, 2025, at the age of 85. A quiet and scholarly figure, Justice Souter served nearly two decades on the high court, leaving behind a legacy marked by judicial restraint, independence, and humility.
Nominated by President George H. W. Bush and confirmed in 1990, Souter was initially seen as a conservative jurist expected to align with the Court’s right wing. Yet over time, he became a key member of its moderate-to-liberal bloc. His evolution was not driven by ideology, but by method. Souter believed that precedent carried deep meaning, and that the law must be understood in the context of real lives. His judicial philosophy reminds us that jurisprudence can evolve not from politics, but from principle.
That commitment to principle found perhaps its clearest articulation in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), where Souter joined Justices O’Connor and Kennedy in crafting the controlling opinion. Souter, who had written his senior thesis at Harvard on the legal positivism of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., seemed in Casey to carry forward Holmes’s legacy of pragmatic judicial thought.
Souter is widely credited with authoring the portion of the opinion discussing stare decisis, in which the plurality articulated a four-part test for when the Court should consider overruling precedent: whether the existing rule had become unworkable; whether reliance on the rule would create hardship or inequity; whether legal developments had left the rule a relic of outdated doctrine; and whether changes in factual understanding had undermined its continued justification. The opinion grounded the Court’s legitimacy not in political winds, but in the public’s trust that legal reasoning can remain principled even in contentious times. The Constitution, it insisted, “serves human values,” and that service demands both continuity and humility.
Legal historian David Garrow observed that this part of the opinion on stare decisis contained “two paragraphs that rank among the most memorable lines ever authored by an American jurist.” Souter wrote:
Where, in the performance of its judicial duties, the Court decides a case in such a way as to resolve the sort of intensely divisive controversy reflected in Roe and those rare, comparable cases, its decision has a dimension that the resolution of the normal case does not carry. It is the dimension present whenever the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution calls the contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division by accepting a common mandate rooted in the Constitution.
The Court is not asked to do this very often, having thus addressed the Nation only twice in our lifetime, in the decisions of Brown [v. Board of Education] and Roe. But when the Court does act in this way, its decision requires an equally rare precedential force to counter the inevitable efforts to overturn it and to thwart its implementation. . . . So to overrule under fire in the absence of the most compelling reason to re-examine a watershed decision would subvert the Court’s legitimacy beyond any serious question.
That vision—that the Court’s authority rests not merely on legal acumen but on the public’s belief in its constancy—offered a sober defense of judicial independence and an unease with politically-motivated reversals. Yet Souter did not view precedent as sacrosanct. He understood that circumstances evolve and facts shift, and that adherence to precedent should yield when grounded in reasoned justification. His approach was not rigid, but responsive—anchored in continuity, open to change, and always insistent that any deviation be principled, not political.
Thirty years later, Casey was overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, on the ground that the 2022 Supreme Court believed that Roe and Casey had simply gotten the constitutional question on abortion wrong. One wonders what Souter might have thought—whether, in his careful framework, the facts, law, and reliance interests had changed so significantly as to merit such a reversal. His views on stare decisis did not bar change entirely but demanded an honest accounting of when change was warranted.
Indeed, at his 2010 Harvard commencement address, Souter reflected that there are “no resolutions immune to rethinking when the significance of old facts may have changed in the changing world.” His was not a vision of moral relativism, but of intellectual humility: a recognition that society’s evolving experience can transform the legal meaning of even long-established rules.
Justice Souter also authored and joined opinions that meaningfully shaped the landscape for public employers. In Board of County Commissioners v. Umbehr (1996), he joined the majority opinion holding that independent contractors who perform services for public entities enjoy First Amendment protections against retaliatory termination for speech on matters of public concern.
He also authored a dissent in Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006), where the majority held that public employees may be disciplined for speech made pursuant to their official duties. Souter warned that the decision risked silencing employees who speak out against government wrongdoing, especially where their official roles give them unique insight. “Would anyone doubt,” he wrote, “that a school principal evaluating the performance of teachers for promotion or pay adjustment retains a citizen’s interest in addressing the quality of teaching in the schools?” It reflected Souter’s faith in the judgment of those closest to the work, and his belief that public institutions depend on the honesty and expertise of those who serve within them.
Justice Souter retired from the Court in 2009, returning to his home state of New Hampshire, where he continued to serve on lower federal courts by designation and remained largely out of public view. Long before his retirement, Souter had expressed a desire to leave Washington, D.C. and return to the rhythms of a quieter life. President Obama announced Souter’s retirement in May 2009 and nominated Sonia Sotomayor to succeed him. Souter never wrote a memoir or sought the spotlight. Instead, he left his legacy to the pages of the U.S. Reports and to the lawyers and judges who continue to cite his careful reasoning.
His passing marks the end of an era, but his work endures in the constitutional protections he helped uphold, in the integrity of his judicial reasoning, and in the example he set for judicial service.