David Hackett Souter

Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court

Tinsley E. Yarbrough

Sifting through Souter's opinions, papers of the Justice's contemporaries and other relevant records and interviews, biographer Tinsley Yarbrough here gives us a fascinating account of one of the more elusive Justices in the history of the Court. Yarbrough shows how Souter has a flexible, evolving, and highly pragmatic judicial style that displays a high regard for precedent--even for liberal decisions with which he may have personally disagreed. Ultimately, Yarbrough contends, Souter has become the principal Rehnquist Court opponent of the originalist, text-bound jurisprudence that many of the more conservative Justices champion.

David Hackett Souter

Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court

Tinsley E. Yarbrough

Description

When the first President Bush chose David Hackett Souter for the Supreme Court in 1990, the slender New Englander with the shy demeanor and ambiguous past was quickly dubbed a "stealth candidate". Since his appointment, Souter has embraced a flexible, evolving, and highly pragmatic judicial style that embraces a high regard for precedent--even liberal decisions of the Warren and Burger Courts with which he may have personally disagreed. Ultimately, Yarbrough contends, Souter has become the principal Rehnquist Court opponent of the originalist, text-bound jurisprudence that many of the more conservative Justices profess to champion. Sifting through Souter's opinions, papers of the Justice's contemporaries and other relevant records and interviews, esteemed Supreme Court biographer Tinsley Yarbrough here gives us the real David Souter, crafting a fascinating account of one of the heretofore most elusive Justices in the history of the Court.

David Hackett Souter

Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court

Tinsley E. Yarbrough

David Hackett Souter

Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court

Tinsley E. Yarbrough

Author Information

Tinsley E. Yarbrough is Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, Department of Political Science, East Carolina University. His books include The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution, Judicial Enigma: The First Justice Harlan, John Marshall Harlan: Great Dissenter of the Warren Court, and Judge Frank Johnson and Human Rights in Alabama, for which he won an ABA Silver Gavel Award. He lives in Greenville, North Carolina.

David Hackett Souter

Traditional Republican on the Rehnquist Court

Tinsley E. Yarbrough

Reviews and Awards

"A detailed and sympathetic portrait of the justice, and its account of Souter's confirmation is particularly salient at the moment."--Emily Bazelon, Washington Post Bookworld

"... helps readers understand how it [the Supreme Court] addresses hot-button social issues. His book is illuminating for anyone wishing to follow current Supreme Court confirmation issues."--Library Journal

"Incisive, judicious... gets to the core of Souter--and of today's political climate.... At a time when the Supreme Court is once again being remade, this biography opens up the world of one of the court's most intriguing members."--Publishers Weekly

"Tinsley Yarbrough provides a marvelous portrait of David Souter both as a jurist and as a man, and explains why his traditional New England conservatism has made him a key member of the centrist coalition that has dominated the Supreme Court for over a decade. And, sadly, he also makes clear why the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party will never, if it can help it, allow another such open-minded person on the nation's highest court."--Melvin I. Urofsky, Professor of History and Public Policy, Virginia Commonwealth University

"[Yarbrough] skillfully blends Souter's personal and professional life in an amalgam that is both enlightening and entertaining....Highly recommended."--CHOICE

"Yarbrough has written a masterful, very human, portrait of America's 105th Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, David Hackett Souter. As with Yarbrough's other biographies of American jurists, he, seemingly effortlessly, captures the essential qualities of Souter's personality, jurisprudence, and his work on the Court and presents these insights in beautifully written yet thoroughly scholarly prose. After reading this book, one "knows" Justice Souter,"Hackett," the way one "knows" a very close friend."--Howard Ball, author of Murder in Mississippi

"Tinsley Yarbrough, the most prolific living biographer of Supreme Court justices, has done it again. This time he has given us a readable, carefully researched, and persuasively argued book about David H. Souter, a traditional Republican who has forthrightly supported liberal positions on civil liberties and abortion. Today, Yarbrough cogently explains, Souter would never be appointed by George W. Bush, the son of the president that did appoint him. Yarbrough mixes personal history with a careful understanding of the case law, the other justices, and the larger political climate to produce a compelling study in both judicial style and courage."--Kermit L. Hall, President and Professor of History, State University of New York at Albany

"Conservatives view the first President Bush's appointment of David H. Souter as a huge miscalculation, and the results seem to bear them out. Souter has voted with the liberals on abortion, separation of church and state, federal legislative power, and Bush v. Gore. In this penetrating analysis, Tinsley E. Yarbrough attributes Justice Souter's decisions to an unwilligness to uproot precedent and a respect for "our settled law." Yarbrough persuasively depicts Souter as an exemplar of the common-law tradition and places him squarely in the mold of Yarbrough's previous subject, the second Justice Harlan."--John Jeffries, Dean, University of Virginia School of Law