In his 2007 book about the Supreme Court, “The Nine,” Jeffery Toobin wrote about David Souter’s reaction to the decision that gave George W. Bush the presidency:
“His whole life was being a judge. He came from a tradition where the independence of the judiciary was the foundation of the rule of law. And Souter believed Bush v. Gore mocked that tradition. His colleagues’ actions were so transparently, so crudely partisan that Souter thought he might not be able to serve with them anymore.
“Souter seriously considered resigning. For many months, it was not at all clear whether he would remain as a justice. That the Court met in a city he loathed made the decision even harder. At the urging of a handful of close friends, he decided to stay on, but his attitude toward the Court was never the same. There were times when David Souter thought of Bush v. Gore and wept.”
Souter’s resignation now as a healthy 69-year-old man, after Obama’s first hundred days, gives weight to Toobin’s assertion, which raised doubts at the time, and underscores President Obama’s declaration yesterday:
“I will seek someone who understands that justice isn’t about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a casebook. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s lives.”
Souter couldn’t have said it better, but he actually did, soon after his swearing-in in 1990: