Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter has passed away. He was 85. Souter retired from the high court in 2009 and was succeeded by Sonia Sotomayor. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. No cause of death has been given. BREAKING: Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a judicial moderate and advocate for humanities and civics education, has died. He was 85 years old. Read more: https://t.co/xDQI9WkeNd pic.twitter.com/hzMcLnprQk — ABC News (@ABC) May 9, 2025 Per CNBC: Souter, while serving on the court, often vexed Bush and other Republicans by aligning himself with liberal justices in decisions on cases. One such notable decision was in 1992′s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which he joined with the majority in upholding the federal constitutional right to abortion first established by the case known as Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court, in its 2022 decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, undid that right to abortion. In 2000, Souter dissented with liberal justices on the case Bush v. Gore, which halted the presidential election vote recount in Florida, guaranteeing that Bush’s son, George W. Bush, would win that contest. Souter’s retirement at a relatively young age allowed a new, Democratic president, Barack Obama, to appoint a liberal justice to replace him: Justice Sonia Sotomayor. BREAKING: Justice David Souter has died pic.twitter.com/eHYN4yt8yx — Steven Mazie (@stevenmazie) May 9, 2025 A closer look: From the Associated Press: When Bush plucked Souter from obscurity in 1990, liberal interest groups feared he would be the vote that would undo the court’s Roe v. Wade ruling in favor of abortion rights. He was called a stealth nominee by some. Bush White House aide John Sununu, the former conservative governor of New Hampshire, hailed his choice as a “home run.” And early in his time in Washington, Souter was called a moderate conservative. But he soon joined in a ruling reaffirming woman’s right to an abortion, a decision from 1992 that is his most noted work on the court. Thirty years later, a more conservative court overturned that decision and the constitutional right to abortion. Souter asked precise questions during argument sessions, sometimes with a fierceness that belied his low-key manner. “He had an unerring knack of finding the weakest link in your argument,” veteran Supreme Court advocate Carter Phillips said. Souter was history’s 105th Supreme Court justice and only its sixth bachelor. Although hailed by The Washington Post as the capital city’s most prominently eligible single man when he moved from New Hampshire, Souter resolutely resisted the social whirl. “I wasn’t that kind of person before I moved to Washington, and, at this age, I don’t see any reason to change,” the intensely private Souter told an acquaintance. He worked seven days a week through most of the court’s term from October to early summer, staying at his Supreme Court office for more than 12 hours a day. He said he underwent an annual “intellectual lobotomy” at the start of each term because he had so little time to read for pleasure.