Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died • Hacker News Board

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#31

Post by freedomben » Fri, May 09, 2025, 7:24 PM UTC

delichon wrote: post #25

Supreme Court justices are famous but not well known. Their names are familiar but not their faces. For this reason, David Souter and Stephen Breyer were frequently mistaken for each other. Once during his tenure on the court, Souter was driving from Washington to his home in New Hampshire, and he stopped in a little restaurant to get something to eat. A couple came up to him, and the man asked him a question. "You'r…

Hah! What an amazing story. I don't want to read too much into it, but generally speaking I think you have to have some genuine humility to do such a thing :-)

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#32

Post by Izikiel43 » Fri, May 09, 2025, 7:33 PM UTC

delichon wrote: post #23

Four justices are now older than Souter was when he retired at age 69. Thomas and Alito, 75, Sotomayor and Roberts, 70. Souter appeared to be in good health at retirement. I admire him for not clinging to power.

All charges should have an age limit, like 70 for Supreme Court, and 65 for president/legislative.

Stop making the government a geriatric

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#33

Post by surgical_fire » Fri, May 09, 2025, 7:37 PM UTC

Amezarak wrote: post #27

karaterobot wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible. And when the problems get bad enough—as they might do for example with another serious terrorist attack, as they might do with another financial meltdown—some one person will come forward and say 'give me total power, and I will solve this problem'. That is how the Roman republic fell: Augustus became emperor not be…

This is a big problem. Democracies throughout the west are refusing to do anything about big problems that have populist support. This is enabling authoritarianism because the authoritarians present an alternative vision and promise to actually do something. If mainstream parties would just take real action on issues like immigration or crime it would suck all the oxygen away from authoritarians.

> refusing to do anything about big problems that have populist support

In most countries I lived in, "big problems that have populist support" are completely manufactured bullshit. Crime may actually be down and populists will be screaming a out it, because in politics perception matters more than actual numbers.

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#34

Post by [deleted] » Fri, May 09, 2025, 7:40 PM UTC

baruz wrote: post #13

shrubble wrote: post #6

He lived in New Hampshire and after the Kelo decision which allowed eminent domain on a property, which he was a deciding vote on, some local NH politicians tried to use Kelo to seize his property, which caused a kerfluffle in the Libertarian side; if it happened today I would guess it would go farther, given wider divisions in politics.

I remember that decision and am still indignant about it. Why should the government give private land to a different private party? If the government is going to take it for public use, I can see the reasoning, but using eminent domain to transfer to private owners is fraught.

[deleted]

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#35

Post by senderista » Fri, May 09, 2025, 7:44 PM UTC

rufus_foreman wrote: post #20

senderista wrote: post #11

I remember him being derided as "the stealth nominee" because he didn't have much of a paper trail that could be used against him in confirmation hearings. (This was of course before confirmation hearings became rubber-stamps when the President's party held the Senate.)

>> This was of course before confirmation hearings became rubber-stamps when the President's party held the Senate Souter was nominated in 1990. The President's party held the Senate in 2005 when Harriet Miers nomination didn't even make it out of committee. If you're talking about an actual vote for a nominee, looks like there were only four rejected candidates in the entire 1900's and 2000's so far ( https://en.wik…

I wasn't referring exclusively to SCOTUS nominees. You think RFK could have been confirmed 10 years ago even if the President's party held the Senate?

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#36

Post by DrillShopper » Fri, May 09, 2025, 7:49 PM UTC

senderista wrote: post #35

rufus_foreman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> This was of course before confirmation hearings became rubber-stamps when the President's party held the Senate Souter was nominated in 1990. The President's party held the Senate in 2005 when Harriet Miers nomination didn't even make it out of committee. If you're talking about an actual vote for a nominee, looks like there were only four rejected candidates in the entire 1900's and 2000's so far ( https://en.wik…

I wasn't referring exclusively to SCOTUS nominees. You think RFK could have been confirmed 10 years ago even if the President's party held the Senate?

10 years ago? Yes. He's a Kennedy.

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#37

Post by stevenae » Fri, May 09, 2025, 8:02 PM UTC

roguecoder wrote: post #29

stevenae wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How accurate is his claim that Augustus became emperor through (my paraphrasing) democratic means and promises to fix real problems for Romans?

I recommend "Augustus: First Emperor of Rome" by Adrian Goldsworthy. Given that "democratic" didn't mean the same thing then it does now (with suffrage limited to a small group of the uber-rich), and that some of the problems he was fixing was "the threat of this army I happen to have" and "this war I actively participated in", I don't think it is wrong. He wasn't in Rome when the Senate awarded him power and the Ves…

Thank you!

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#38

Post by quesera » Fri, May 09, 2025, 8:52 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #31

delichon wrote: post #25

Supreme Court justices are famous but not well known. Their names are familiar but not their faces. For this reason, David Souter and Stephen Breyer were frequently mistaken for each other. Once during his tenure on the court, Souter was driving from Washington to his home in New Hampshire, and he stopped in a little restaurant to get something to eat. A couple came up to him, and the man asked him a question. "You'r…

Hah! What an amazing story. I don't want to read too much into it, but generally speaking I think you have to have some genuine humility to do such a thing :-)

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#39

Post by edmundsauto » Fri, May 09, 2025, 9:11 PM UTC

Izikiel43 wrote: post #32

delichon wrote: post #23

Four justices are now older than Souter was when he retired at age 69. Thomas and Alito, 75, Sotomayor and Roberts, 70. Souter appeared to be in good health at retirement. I admire him for not clinging to power.

All charges should have an age limit, like 70 for Supreme Court, and 65 for president/legislative. Stop making the government a geriatric

This is fair if there are minimum age requirements like for the presidency.

Re: Former Supreme Court justice David Souter has died

#40

Post by WalterGR » Fri, May 09, 2025, 9:12 PM UTC

treetalker wrote: post #12

I met him at the Court once during law school. He came across as the most even-keeled person in the world. I asked him how he thought he had changed, if at all, throughout his years on the Court. He said, "We never see ourselves as others see us." I'll never forget it. He'll be missed; sorry to hear that his papers won't be released for 50 years.

> sorry to hear that his papers won't be released for 50 years.

Are they subject to Freedom of Information requests?