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David Souter Quotes

Powerful David Souter for Daily Growth

About David Souter

David Souter was an esteemed American jurist who served as an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Born on October 17, 1939, in Weir's Beach, New Hampshire, Souter grew up in a family deeply rooted in community service and public education. He attended Ivy League schools, graduating magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1961 and receiving his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1966. Souter began his legal career as an assistant attorney general for the state of New Hampshire before moving to private practice. In 1976, he was appointed as a judge on the New Hampshire Superior Court, and in 1978, he was elevated to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. His extensive experience in the judiciary, combined with his conservative legal philosophy, caught the attention of President George H.W. Bush, who nominated Souter for the Supreme Court in 1990. As a Justice, Souter often found himself at odds with his more conservative colleagues due to his commitment to interpreting the Constitution as an evolving document that should adapt to changing societal values and needs. Some of his most significant contributions include his dissenting opinion in United States v. Virginia (1996), where he argued for gender equality in the Virginia Military Institute, and his majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which struck down laws prohibiting consensual homosexual sex as unconstitutional. In retirement, Souter returned to his native New Hampshire, living a secluded life focused on reading, hiking, and teaching at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. Despite his withdrawal from the public eye, his impact on American law and jurisprudence remains significant. His biography serves as a testament to the power of intellectual curiosity, commitment to justice, and the capacity for personal evolution in the face of new experiences and challenges.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The role of an American jurist is to resist our fears, not to exploit them."

This quote by David Souter highlights the importance of a neutral and impartial judicial system in America. Rather than allowing fear, which can often stem from societal anxieties or political pressures, to influence their decisions, American jurists should strive to uphold justice, respecting the law and Constitution above personal or popular opinions. This interpretation underscores the critical role of judges in safeguarding democracy by maintaining an unbiased and fair legal process that does not exploit public fear for political or personal gain.

"Freedom is the most precious thing in the world, and it's a freedom we can never take for granted."

This quote by David Souter emphasizes the profound value of personal freedom as the most cherished aspect of human existence. He underscores that the freedom we enjoy should not be taken lightly or for granted, as it is an essential component of a fulfilling life and society. Freedom allows individuals to express their thoughts, beliefs, and choices without external coercion or restraint, enabling them to grow, learn, and contribute meaningfully to their communities. It serves as the foundation for personal development, self-realization, and overall human progress.

"We have a Constitution which says we are a collection of individuals."

This quote by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter emphasizes that the fundamental character of the United States is as a collection of individual citizens, rather than as a unified entity with a single identity or purpose. In other words, the country values and protects the rights, freedoms, and autonomy of each person above all else, as outlined in the Constitution. This perspective underscores the importance of individual liberty, diversity, and the ability for individuals to pursue their own paths in America's democratic society.

"The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not constitute cause for alteration of the text."

David Souter's quote emphasizes the importance of adhering to the original text of the First Amendment, regardless of its potential inconvenience in modern times. The freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition enshrined in the First Amendment may sometimes clash with societal norms or practical considerations; however, according to Souter, this does not warrant changes to the text. This underscores the foundational principle that the Constitution's protections for individual rights must be upheld consistently, even when they present challenges or complications.

"Freedom is the essential requisite of human dignity. As such, it is not an accidental feature of our society, but rather its most fundamental component."

This quote emphasizes that freedom is a fundamental and inherent aspect of human dignity. In essence, the statement underscores the idea that freedom, which allows individuals to make choices, express themselves, and live their lives autonomously, is crucial for maintaining human worth and respect. It suggests that a society that values and upholds human dignity should prioritize the protection and promotion of individual freedoms as its foundational element.

When Congress exercises the powers delegated to it by the Constitution, it may impose affirmative obligations on executive and judicial officers of state and local governments as well as ordinary citizens.

- David Souter

Constitution, Congress, May, Judicial

Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government had the power to issue commands to the several sovereign states, but it had no authority to govern individuals directly.

- David Souter

Govern, Issue, Several, Directly

It may be that the seemingly intrinsic attraction that past time has for me is merely a desire for escapism, as I look out at the nation and world with little optimism.

- David Souter

Desire, May, Escapism, Attraction

Meaning comes from the capacity to see what is not in some simple, objective sense there on the printed page.

- David Souter

Meaning, See, Some, Printed

I find the workload of what I do sufficiently great that when the term of court starts, I undergo a sort of annual intellectual lobotomy.

- David Souter

Court, Sort, Sufficiently, Undergo

Every defendant knows, if endowed with the mental competence for criminal responsibility, that the life he will take by his homicidal behavior is that of a unique person, like himself, and that the person to be killed probably has close associates, 'survivors,' who will suffer harms and deprivations from the victim's death.

- David Souter

Life, Death, Mental, Defendant

There can be no stronger claim to a physician's assistance than at the time when death is imminent, a moral judgment implied by the state's own recognition of the legitimacy of medical procedures necessarily hastening the moment of impending death.

- David Souter

Medical, Implied, Imminent, Claim

Legislatures not driven to desperation by the problems of public education may be able to see the threat in vouchers negotiable in sectarian schools.

- David Souter

Education, See, May, Vouchers

Millions of statements are made about the president every day on every subject and from every standpoint; threats of violence are not an integral feature of any one subject or viewpoint as distinct from others. Differential treatment of threats against the president, then, selects nothing but special risks, not special messages.

- David Souter

Against, Treatment, Subject, Standpoint

For those whose exclusive norm of constitutional judging is merely fair reading of language applied to facts objectively viewed, 'Brown' must either be flat-out wrong or a very mystifying decision.

- David Souter

Decision, Very, Applied, Objectively

The restoration comes not only from the landscape and air, though they play their significant part, but from the people. I feel a strong need to be in New Hampshire for as much of the summer as I can manage it.

- David Souter

Play, New, Hampshire, Manage

We hold that an employer is vicariously liable for actionable discrimination caused by a supervisor, but subject to an affirmative defense looking to the reasonableness of the employer's conduct as well as that of a plaintiff victim.

- David Souter

Vicariously, Caused, Subject, Liable

Ellis Island lies in New York Harbor 1,300 feet from Jersey City, New Jersey, and one mile from the tip of Manhattan. At the time of the first European settlement, it was mostly mud, sand, and oyster shells, which nearly disappeared at high tide.

- David Souter

Feet, Tide, Mostly, Settlement

In a perfect world, I would never give another speech, address, talk, lecture or whatever as long as I live.

- David Souter

Give, Perfect, Address, Perfect World

The applicability of the Establishment Clause to public funding of benefits to religious schools was settled in Everson v. Board of Ed. of Ewing, which inaugurated the modern era of establishment doctrine.

- David Souter

Benefits, Clause, Which, Board

History provides an antidote to cynicism about the past.

- David Souter

Past, Cynicism, Provides, Antidote

The Court's majority holds that the Establishment Clause is no bar to Ohio's payment of tuition at private religious elementary and middle schools under a scheme that systematically provides tax money to support the schools' religious missions.

- David Souter

Private, Religious, Clause, Payment

While Congress did not, to my knowledge, calculate aggregate dollar values for the nationwide effects of racial discrimination in 1964, in 1994 it did rely on evidence of the harms caused by domestic violence and sexual assault, citing annual costs of $3 billion in 1990 and $5 to $10 billion in 1993.

- David Souter

Congress, Evidence, Assault, Calculate

The court has to decide which of our approved desires has the better claim, right here, right now, and a court has to do more than read fairly when it makes this kind of choice.

- David Souter

Here, Which, Read, Claim

The Constitution is a pantheon of values, and a lot of hard cases are hard because the Constitution gives no simple rule of decision for the cases in which one of the values is truly at odds with another.

- David Souter

Constitution, Which, Cases, Odds

The language of the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws did not change between 1896 and 1954, and it would be very hard to say that the obvious facts on which 'Plessy' was based had changed.

- David Souter

Very, Which, Based, Equal Protection

The Constitution has a good share of deliberately open-ended guarantees, like rights to due process of law, equal protection of the law, and freedom from unreasonable searches.

- David Souter

Law, Process, Searches, Equal Protection

The day you see a camera come into our courtroom, it's going to roll over my dead body.

- David Souter

Over, Going, Roll, Camera

The obligation of any judge is to decide the case before the court, and the nature of the issue presented will largely determine the appropriate scope of the principle on which its decision should rest.

- David Souter

Rest, Appropriate, Which, Presented

The Constitution is no simple contract, not because it uses a certain amount of open-ended language, but because its language grants and guarantees many good things, and good things that compete with each other and can never all be realized, altogether, all at once.

- David Souter

Compete, Grants, Amount, Good Things

Over the course of 19 years on the Supreme Court, I learned some lessons about the Constitution of the United States.

- David Souter

Some, Over, United States, Lessons

Congress has the power to legislate with regard to activity that, in the aggregate, has a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

- David Souter

Activity, Congress, Regard, Substantial

Murder has foreseeable consequences. When it happens, it is always to distinct individuals, and after it happens, other victims are left behind.

- David Souter

Behind, Always, Other, Foreseeable

I retired when the Supreme Court rose for the summer recess in 2009, and a couple of weeks later I drove north from Washington with no regrets about the prior 19 years or about the decision to try living a more normal life for whatever time might remain.

- David Souter

No Regrets, Couple, Weeks, Retired

I am not a pessimist, but I am not an optimist about the future of American democracy.

- David Souter

Future, I Am, About, Pessimist

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