Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, a ‘stealth’ Republican nominee who became a liberal favorite, dies at 85

Retired Supreme Court Judge David H. Souter, the Ascetic Bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a favorite of liberals for his nearly 20 years on the bench, died. He is 85.

Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire,The courtsaid in a statement Friday.

He retired from court in June 2009, giving President Barack Obama his first vacancy in the Supreme Court to fill. Obama, a Democrat, chose Sonia Sotomayor, the first justice in Latina of the court.

Souter was appointed by Republican President George HW Bush in 1990. He was a trusted liberal vote on abortion, church-state relations, freedom of expression and the access of federal courts. Souter also does not dive from the decision to the bush v. Gore in 2000, effectively given the presidency to George W. Bush, the son of the man who put him in the high court.

In retirement, Souter warned that ignorance of how the government could ruin American democracy.

“What I'm worried about is that when the problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible. And when problems get bad … someone will come and say, 'Give me total power and I solve this problem.' That's how the Roman Republic fell, ”Souter said in a 2012 interview.

His lifestyle was spare – yogurt and an apple, consumed at his desk, was a common lunch – and he avoided Washington's social scene. He couldn't wait to leave the town in the first part of the Tag -hot. Once the court completed his work in late June, he climbed his Volkswagen Jetta for a drive back to a tired field where his family moved when he was 11.

But for all his reserves, Souter was loved by colleagues, court employees and friends. He was a well -known historian and generous in his time.

“Justice David Souter has served in our court with a huge difference in nearly twenty years. He has brought unusual wisdom and kindness to a public service life,” said Chief Justice John Roberts. Souter has continued cases of hearing at the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals for more than a decade after leaving the high court, Roberts said.

When Bush got the souter from being deep in 1990, liberal interest groups were afraid that he would vote to remove Roe V. Wade in favor of abortion rights. He was called a stealth nominee of some.

Bush White House aide John Sununu, the former conservative governor of New Hampshire, named his choice as a “home run.” And early in his time in Washington, Souter was called a moderate conservative.

But he soon joined a ruling again proving the woman's right to an abortion, a decision from 1992 that was her most well -known court work. Thirty years later, a more conservative courtRecovered that decisionand the right of the Constitution to abortion.

Souter asked accurate questions during argumental sessions, sometimes with a fierce belied his low-key way. “He has an unerring knack of finding the weakest link to your argument,” Supreme Court's veteran proponent Carter Phillips said.

Souter is the Supreme Court justice of the Supreme Court and the only Bachelor's only bachelor.

Although the Washington Post appreciates as the most prominently deserved single man of the city capital when he moved from New Hampshire, souter is determined to prevent social whirl.

“I wasn't that kind of person before I moved to Washington, and, at this age, I could see no reason to change,” said the intense private souter.

He worked seven days a week through most of the court term from October to early Tag -hot, staying in his Supreme Court's office for more than 12 hours a day. He said he was subject to an annual “intellectual lobotomy” at the start of each term because there was little time to read for fun.

Souter rented an apartment a few miles from the court and jogged one to Fort Mcnair, an army installation near his apartment building. Sometimes he was rotting while running, a seemingly random gesture.

Souter returned to his home in Weare, New Hampshire, for a few months each summer and was given the use of an office in a Concord Courthouse.

An avid hiker, Souter spent most of his time away from work on the New Hampshire Mountains.

When Souter in 2005 joined an unpopular decision of 5-4 on the well-known domain that allowed a City of Connecticut to take many water homes for a private development, a group was angry with the decision to use it to expel him from his weare farmhouse to make way for “lost Liberty Hotel.” But the residents rejected the residents.

Shortly after his retirement, Souter bought a 3,500-square-foot Cape Cod-style house in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. It is reported, though it may be only part of the lore of the soter, which he remembers that the foundation of the house on the weare will give way under the weight of all the books he owns.

Souter has become a federal appeal judge in just four months of choosing for the High Court. He heard but a case as a federal judge, and as a state judge he used to have little opportunity to lead constitutional issues.

Although the liberals first kept his appointment, it was political conservatives who were felt when betraying two 1992 decisions, Souter helped make a moderate liberal coalition that re-proved the right of the abortion constitution and the prolonged court prohibition on the officially sponsored prayers in public schools.

But as Souter biographer Tinsley Yarbrough noted, justice did not take a “intense position.”

In fact, in June 2008, Souter was in contact with Exxon Mobil Corp. And he broke up with his liberal colleagues in the downfall of punishment for punishment owed by Alaskan victims of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Before serving as a New Hampshire judge, Souter was the Attorney General of his state for two years. He worked with the Attorney General staff for eight years, after a short stint in private practice.

Souter achieved his undergraduate and law degree from Harvard University, and a master's degree from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar Washington, DC

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com