The Judicial Behavior of Justice Souter in Criminal Cases and the Denial of a Conservative Counterrevolution

[Excerpt] “The following article documents the judicial career of Justice David Souter from his time served as an attorney general and state judge in New Hampshire until his recent tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court. Based upon his written opinions and individual votes, Justice Souter clearly has evolved into a more liberal jurist than ideological conservatives would have preferred in the area of criminal justice. Over the course of his judicial career, Justice Souter has gained respect as an intellectual scholar by attempting to completely understand both sides of a dispute and applying precedent and legal rules in a flexible—albeit technical—manner in the hope of achieving justice. However, Justice Souter may be remembered most as the justice who disappointed ideological conservatives by failing to complete a conservative counterrevolution that had begun with President Richard Nixon‘s first appointment to the Court in 1969.”