From the Boston Globe:
When he was nominated to the Supreme Court in 1990, David H. Souter vowed to uphold the “original intent” of the Constitution, words that his backers interpreted to mean he would join the court’s conservative bloc to support states’ rights and limit the reach of federal power.
But as a Supreme Court justice, Souter has often infuriated his initial supporters by repeatedly siding with the court’s liberal wing on issues from abortion to crime, all the while arguing that the founders would have supported his interpretations.
Indeed, legal scholars said, Souter’s two most significant legacies on the court have been his resistance to the erosion of federal power in the 1990s and his insistence that there need not be a conflict between respecting the founders’ intent and backing liberal causes.
Souter’s writing “shows us you can be an originalist without being a conservative,” said Linda Coberly, a Chicago lawyer and former Supreme Court clerk.
Turtle Talk 