Post AtvQthAH39isLRUoyG by violenteastcoastcity@mastodon.social
(DIR) More posts by violenteastcoastcity@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #Atv2fZoXBWWSaq3vlI by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:35:48Z
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Former #SCOTUS Justice #DavidSouter died on Thursday at his New Hampshire home, the court said in a statement on Friday. He was 85.#law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #nonpartisan https://www.reuters.com/world/us/former-us-supreme-court-justice-souter-dies-court-says-2025-05-09/ 🧵Excerpts from a beautiful piece written in the NYT by David J. Garrow in 1994 on Souter’s remarkable contribution in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in which the #SupremeCourt upheld the right to #abortion as established by #RoeVWade:
(DIR) Post #Atv2mlddcYoPICOWhM by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:38:03Z
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Justice Souter EmergesBy David J. GarrowNO PUBLIC DOCUMENT—AND PROBABLY only a single very private one—marks April 23, 1992, as one of the more momentous days in recent #SupremeCourt history. Nothing of apparent note transpired at the Court that Thursday; oral arguments had taken place the day before and the Justices' weekly private conference, where they vote on cases, would not begin until Friday morning.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependencehttps://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/25/magazine/justice-souter-emerges.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=F249DA7B-1C0B-423D-9745-D9A15804BA94
(DIR) Post #Atv33nF0umZVBczlvU by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:41:07Z
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In his chambers on the far southeastern corner of the main floor, the Court's then-2nd-newest Justice spent the day in contemplation, pondering one of Wednesday's cases.…Only late in the day did the Justice reach a firm conclusion. Even though this was the case of the year, & perhaps of the decade, as of the day before, he had not—just as he had told the United States Senate & the American people almost 2 years earlier—decided what he would do.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence
(DIR) Post #Atv3G0Olp1AjT6NkjQ by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:43:21Z
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On Wednesday, during oral argument of the case, Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, he had listened intently from his seat on the bench as Planned Parenthood's attorney, Kathryn Kolbert, began her argument:"Whether our #Constitution endows #government with the #power to force a #woman to continue or to end a pregnancy against her will is the central question in this case.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv3N5fccUUvqUduRk by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:44:38Z
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"Since this Court's decision in #RoeVWade, a generation of American #women have come of age secure in the knowledge that the #Constitution provides the highest level of protection for their childbearing decisions."This landmark decision, which necessarily & logically flows from a century of this Court's #jurisprudence, not only protects rights of bodily #integrity & #autonomy but has enabled millions of women to participate fully & #equally in society."#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary
(DIR) Post #Atv3WfdMHHdDzU9UO0 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:46:22Z
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But now #Roe's survival was very much in doubt, as was starkly revealed by the Pennsylvania anti-#abortion regulations under review in Casey. 3 years earlier, Chief Justice William Rehnquist & Justices Byron White, Antonin Scalia & Anthony Kennedy had signaled their desire to overrule Roe at the first available opportunity, & few observers doubted that the Court's newest & most controversial member, #ClarenceThomas, was eager to join them as the fifth & decisive vote.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law
(DIR) Post #Atv3p2MkV07Tho8o88 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:49:40Z
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…Only as Preate's time was about to expire did the 52-year-old #DavidSouter speak up to ask Preate a statistical question about the Pennsylvania provision that would require married women facing unwanted pregnancies to notify their husbands, even if they were separated or estranged, before seeking an #abortion. Then, after #UnitedStates Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr, representing the anti-abortion views of the Bush Admin, succeeded Preate to second the attack on #Roe,#SCOTUS #law
(DIR) Post #Atv3tVBfHgqGFe5MoK by troy_frizzell@mstdn.social
2025-05-09T13:50:25Z
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@Nonilex I’ll have to pass on the praise of this fascist who made one decent decision.
(DIR) Post #Atv45tW6eXWdBRYXIW by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:52:44Z
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#DavidSouter pressed Starr to concede that if his position prevailed, states could #outlaw all #abortions except perhaps those where a pregnancy directly threatened a #woman's life.None of Souter's comments had telegraphed a clear position on either Casey or Roe.…Not for many years will any outsiders likely see any notes that may have been taken that following Friday morning when the Justices met to vote on Planned Parenthood v. Casey.#SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv4IH196V5lXoyefI by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:54:58Z
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But while 7 Justices indicated that they would uphold most of the PA restrictions, only 4—Rehnquist, White, Scalia & Thomas—wanted to explicitly vitiate #Roe. O'Connor, Kennedy & #Souter, however, all believed the restrictions could be upheld at the same time that Roe was left standing. While Rehnquist himself undertook the drafting of Casey's apparent majority opinion, Kennedy's surprising stance gave Souter & O'Connor the opening toward an intermediate outcome….#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law
(DIR) Post #Atv4SjHWsBEA6HctAO by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:56:51Z
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Well before Rehnquist's opinion was circulated to other Justices in late May, Kennedy privately joined #DavidSouter & O'Connor in preparing an extensive separate statement. Sometimes all 3 Justices, sitting on the couch in Souter's office, would jointly review their progress, & their cooperation led to a stunningly unexpected result: Rather than Rehnquist & Scalia having 5 votes to void #Roe, there were 5 votes -- Souter, O'Connor & Kennedy, plus Blackmun & Stevens, to uphold Roe.#SCOTUS #law
(DIR) Post #Atv4faC5yJRbgEDIqe by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T13:59:11Z
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In early June, #Souter, O'Connor & Kennedy distributed to their colleagues initial copies of their joint opinion. As David Savage later wrote in The Los Angeles Times: "Rehnquist & Scalia were stunned. So, too, was Blackmun." And so, on Monday morning, June 29, 1992, the final day of the term, commentators were unprepared for the result in #PlannedParenthoodVCasey.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #RoeVWade #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv4pWmvUQvE0qBPmK by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:00:58Z
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Not since the famous 1958 Little Rock school desegregation case of Cooper v. Aaron, when all 9 Justices signed a ringing reaffirmation of Brown v. Board of Education, had any #SCOTUS opinion been presented to the American people as formally authored by more than one Justice. But now, symbolically invoking the powerful precedent of Cooper, Justices O'Connor, Kennedy & #Souter issued their plurality decision in Casey as an explicit trio opinion.#DavidSouter #law #judiciary #independence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv53aSscJ0vTBVib2 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:03:31Z
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"The essential holding of #RoeVWade should be retained & once again affirmed," they wrote in language that also spoke for Blackmun & Stevens."Roe's essential holding, the holding we reaffirm, has 3 parts. First is a recognition of the right of the #woman to choose to have an #abortion before viability & to obtain it without undue interference from the State.…#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv59xAR7dxlcMv4Bk by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:04:40Z
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“Second is a confirmation of the State's power to restrict #abortions after fetal viability, if the #law contains exceptions for pregnancies which endanger a woman's life or health. And third is the principle that the State has legitimate interests from the outset of the pregnancy in protecting the #health of the #woman & the life of the fetus that may become a child. These principles do not contradict one another; & we adhere to each."#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv5IAgck59HratSWe by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:06:08Z
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When announcing decisions from the bench, Justices usually offer a summary or read brief excerpts. On this morning, however, each of the three—first O'Connor, then Kennedy and finally #Souter—orally delivered major portions of the trio opinion. Journalists quickly realized they were witnessing an unprecedented event.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv5V6OG1izYIsT7FA by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:08:29Z
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The most eloquent section of the opinion was the discussion of #Roe & the principle of #StareDecisis — Latin for #judicial respect of existing #precedent — that had been crafted principally by #DavidSouter. Souter's words in Casey spoke not only for the Court, but also for the essence of America's judicial heritage & for the very core of Souter's own judicial background.#SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv5bG3Z07Ps1Jiz1U by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:09:36Z
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That background had not been fully understood by the commentators & Senators who had debated what his 1990 nomination meant for the future of #Roe & other fundamental rights. If they had, what was now happening in Casey would not have come as a surprise.#Souter's analysis reflected a realism not always found in high court pronouncements:#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv5jRvIlSeV8nlYfo by ChrisHolladay@mastodon.social
2025-05-09T14:11:04Z
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@Nonilex What a loss
(DIR) Post #Atv5ksJS8OG7HBk5XE by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:11:20Z
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"For two decades of economic & social developments, people have organized intimate relationships & made choices that define their views of themselves & their places in society, in reliance on the availability of #abortion in the event that contraception should fail. The ability of #women to participate #equally in the economic & social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their #reproductive lives,” #DavidSouter wrote.#SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv5vd8WtoqDOSlHc0 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:13:16Z
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Then #Souter moved to the core of his argument, 2 paragraphs that rank among the most memorable lines ever authored by an American #jurist:"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 & those rare, comparable cases, its decision has a dimension that the resolution of the normal case does not carry.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv67pg06OohlCEgk4 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:15:29Z
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“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 & #Roe.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv6KdnZZieegbswmO by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:17:47Z
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“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 & to thwart its implementation. Some of those efforts may be mere #unprincipled emotional reactions; others may proceed from principles worthy of profound respect.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv6TKLBHxCywdkNrE by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:19:22Z
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“But whatever the premises of opposition may be, only the most convincing justification under accepted standards of #precedent could suffice to demonstrate that a later decision overruling the first was anything but a #surrender to #political pressure, & an unjustified repudiation of the principle on which the Court staked its #authority….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…”#DavidSouter
(DIR) Post #Atv6vdUPgeNqRUZ2P2 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:24:29Z
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#Souter closed by reiterating that #Casey, & #Roe, were about far more than simply #abortion:“A decision to overrule Roe's essential holding under the existing circumstances would address error, if error there was,at the cost of both profound & unnecessary damage to the Court's #legitimacy, & to the Nation's commitment to the rule of #law. It is therefore imperative to adhere to the essence of Roe's original decision, & we do so today."#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #Independence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv6zdxjs1CN4GBxXk by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:25:12Z
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Harry Blackmun's concurrence accurately termed the #Souter-O'Connor-Kennedy joint opinion "an act of personal courage & constitutional principle," & Blackmun added that "what has happened today should serve as a model for future Justices & a warning to all who have tried to turn this Court into yet another #political branch."#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv8Tcih9emtr60yMy by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:41:48Z
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[another noteworthy section is on Souter’s confirmation hearings]When the Senate #Judiciary Cmte hearing began…Senators & reporters quickly realized that Souter was an impressively erudite nominee.…Amid all the concepts & issues he was asked to address, 2…stand out as most revealing: #liberty & #precedent. …Specifically, Souter stressed that in the #DueProcess clause language of the #5thAmendment & #14thAmendment, "the concept of liberty IS NOT LIMITED BY THE SPECIFIC SUBJECTS.”#DavidSouter
(DIR) Post #Atv92eYWJxDHgVxW3k by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:48:10Z
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…Casey was the most important case of the 1991-92 term, but there were other impressive Souter successes. He, Kennedy & O'Connor also came together, again joined by Blackmun & Stevens, in a crucial #EstablishmentClause case, Lee v. Weisman, where they struck down the recital of #religious prayers at #PublicSchool graduation ceremonies.#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #Constitution #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #Atv9u8fF6otqPcbhui by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:57:50Z
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…[A] close friend, echoing how Casey "wasn't a surprise," especially given "David's respect for #precedent," stressed that people did not appreciate how "David's a #judicial conservative, NOT a #political conservative.”…Neither the 1992-93 or 1993-94 terms would prove as significant as 1991-92. The most striking statistic of 1991-92, as Casey exemplified, was the degree to which Anthony Kennedy had shifted away from Rehnquist & toward Souter & O'Connor.
(DIR) Post #AtvA2j0Zrm4RRqgG1o by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T14:59:23Z
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But in the following year, as Kennedy reverted to greater agreement w/the Chief Justice, #Souter found himself on the minority side of far more split decisions.…The 1992-93 decline of the Souter-O'Connor-Kennedy trio led some observers to highlight how Kennedy had moved back rightward, but Paul Barrett of WSJ contended that actually the "most striking development" was Souter's "emerging #liberal streak."#DavidSouter #SCOTUS #law #judiciary #JudicialIndependence #ethics
(DIR) Post #AtvAbLB4Sba1fq5wK8 by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T15:05:38Z
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…the most dramatic 1993-94 evidence of #DavidSouter's increasingly influential intellectual leadership of the Court's 6 mainstream members was the growing number of combative references that #AntoninScalia was directing to him in multiple opinions. #SCOTUS insiders emphasize that in person, the 2 justices "like each other,” …but based upon the written record, there is little doubt that Scalia now realizes…that he has decisively lost the struggle for #intellectual leadership of the Court….#law
(DIR) Post #AtvAk36T1skwDw5t7Q by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T15:07:13Z
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In one late June #HabeasCorpus ruling, …3 contentious #Scalia footnotes criticized Souter by name; 3 days later, in one of the term's leading cases, …Scalia in angry dissent dismissed #DavidSouter's majority opinion as "facile" & petulantly invoked Souter's name again & again in criticizing the outcome. Seemingly both provoked & bemused, Souter responded that "Justice Scalia's dissent is certainly the work of a gladiator, but he thrusts at lions of his own imagining."#SCOTUS #law #judiciary
(DIR) Post #AtvBBpHK1WcZSGPs6y by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T15:12:14Z
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…the results of the 1993-94 term showed that he & his 3 most regular allies—Blackmun, Stevens & Ginsburg, who had been together in 11 of the year's 14 5-4 cases—had been the losing foursome in 8 of those 11, prevailing only in 3 criminal cases where they were joined by Kennedy. And if one looked at the 35 cases where Blackmun & Rehnquist had come out on opposite sides, perhaps #Souter's "emerging liberal streak" was no exaggeration at all…Right-wing Court watchers rued Souter's evolution.#law
(DIR) Post #AtvCC3v5gemwooh6iu by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T15:23:28Z
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[Not from the NYT article, still my #DavidSouter 🧵]#Souter planned his retirement from #SCOTUS to occur during a Democratic presidency as he was keenly aware of Republican designs on turning the court into a political arm.NPR 2009:Factors in his decision no doubt include the election of President #Obama, who would be more likely to appoint a successor attuned to the principles Souter has followed as a moderate-to-liberal member of the court's more liberal bloc over the past 2 decades.#law
(DIR) Post #AtvEThsEamc9Z4tpWC by grammasaurus@mastodon.social
2025-05-09T15:49:03Z
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@Nonilex Amazing thread! I learned a lot. Thank you. RIP Justice Souter
(DIR) Post #AtvH59JxhsxzJVqnpo by jhavok@mastodon.social
2025-05-09T16:18:13Z
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@Nonilex The intense irony of Scalia referring to anyone's argument as "facile." The man made facile reasoning into an art form.
(DIR) Post #AtvHdQ8lg9eNK9xMuW by Nonilex@masto.ai
2025-05-09T16:24:27Z
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@troy_frizzell Check your SCOTUS history. He became a stalwart member of the court’s liberal bloc.
(DIR) Post #AtvJJzo3Z1lK3a8Npg by JJKrawczyk@mastodon.social
2025-05-09T16:43:20Z
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@Nonilex Really wish RBG had done the same.
(DIR) Post #AtvQthAH39isLRUoyG by violenteastcoastcity@mastodon.social
2025-05-09T18:08:12Z
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@Nonilex "Oh no! Not Souter!"