Former US Supreme Court Justice David Souter died at 85

Former US Chief Justice David Souter, a life servant for life, moderate justice and advocate for Humanities and Citizenship education, has died. He is 85 years old.

“Chief Justice David Soer served our court with a big difference for nearly twenty years,” judge Chairman John Roberts said in a Friday statement. “He brought unusual wisdom and kindness to public service for life. After retiring to New Hampshire he loved in 2009, he continued to provide significant services to our branches by sitting regularly in the Appeal Court for the first circuit for more than a decade. He would be very missed.”

Soer was nominated in 1990 by President George HW Bush, Yang praise him As “extraordinary judges of sharp intelligence and the highest ability.”

In more than 19 years on the bench, he wrote important opinions about abortion, religion and property rights.

His moderate position was surprising and disappointed by many Republicans, who hoped that the Soer would harden as a conservative seat emptied by Judge William Brennan, an old leader of the court’s liberal wing.

Only five years after his appointment, a conservative weekly standard labeled “Demon justice,” criticizing his position as “one of the most loyal liberals in court.”

For many conservatives, the souter is a symbol of what the President of the Republic of the future must avoid in the candidate.

His most controversial opinion came in 1992, written jointly by Chief Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and Anthony Kennedy, reiterating the right to abortion under Roe V. Wade and created the standard “Inexpensive burden” to assess the state restrictions on the procedure.

“To refuse under the fire, in the absence of the most convincing reason to re -examine the decision of DAS, it will overthrow the legitimacy of a court outside of serious questions,” the three judges wrote in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

The defenders of the Souter have long denied that he was a secret liberal, emphasizing his respect for the precedent and philosophy of “original,” which emphasized the historical meaning behind the constitutional clause and federal law.

“The original meaning of conservatism is a reluctance to embrace radical changes,” Ernest Young, a former Professor of the Law Professor Soer and Duke, told ABC News in 2009.

Soer, which is episcopal, is also known for advocating the neutrality of the government that is strict in religious matters and consistently opposes the appearance of religious appearance in the public space.

During the trial confirmation, he called it a “terrible fact” that Jewish children felt excluded when Christian prayers were read in public schools.

In 2005, he wrote a 5-4 decision that blocked three Kentucky districts from displaying a copy of framed from ten orders in court buildings and public schools. He also chose not to allow organized prayers at high school graduation ceremonies and soccer matches.

“He has no answers that tend to be. He really relies on analysis [historical] The material to decide on how he will come out in the case, “Stuart Benjamin, a former clerk for Soer and Duke Law Professor, said in 2009.

Soer is one of four judges who strongly disagree with the 2000 decision on Bush V. Gore, which ended the contested Florida voting and effectively handed the president to George W. Bush.

“Tells this manually will be a high order, but before this court continues to make efforts to do that the Florida court is ready to do the best to complete the work,” Souter wrote. “There is no justification to deny the country of opportunities to try to calculate all the disputed ballots now. I respectfully disagree.”

He was reportedly so confused about the decision he thought of resigning from the court, sources who were familiar with his thoughts told Jeffrey Toobin, the author “The Nine, Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court.” Some friends of justice strongly reject the idea.

In 2005, Soer joined a more liberal court member to expand the ability of local governments to win private land for public use. His voice attracted fierce protests and even triggered ballots to win the 200 -year -old New Hampshire Agriculture House as a return. It failed.

In testimony during the confirmation hearing, the souter also surprised conservatives with a strong defense over affirmative actions.

“There will be a need – and I am afraid for a longer time than we want to say – the need for affirmative actions looking for people who meet the requirements that have been discouraged by the generation of people’s discrimination from taking their place in the main stream of America,” he said at the time.

The rejection of the souter to political ideology has been celebrated among their former employees and friends.

“He is a Yankee Republican who is classic,” former Souter and Legal Professor Harvard Rebecca Tushnet told ABC News in 2009.

“The Republican party has now moved to the right,” Professor of the Pennsylvania University Kermit Roosevelt University, who was an employee for Souter in 1999 and 2000, told ABC News. “He does not look like a modern republic, he is not a modern person in many ways.”

Soer rarely spoke in public about her jurisprudence, but when she did, she clearly rejected what she considered a simple approach to the constitutional interpretation adopted by several peers appointed by the Republican party.

“The constitutional assessment is not just a combination of just reading and simple facts,” Souter said in 2010 The commencement address at Harvard University.

“The judges must vote among the good things that are approved by the constitution, and when they do, they must vote, not based on measurements, but the meaning,” he added, rejecting tight textualism supported by conservative icons of Clarence Thomas justice and Chief Justice Antonin Scalia.

Retirement at the age of 69 years, the souter who has never been married quickly fled from Washington to return to his home country New Hampshire and a two -century -old agricultural house that was loved.

For admirers, the souter brought affection to the high court.

“He urged all judges to recognize human aspects of their decisions, and to use all the power of their hearts and minds and creatures to improve their decisions,” said Subra Suresh, former President of the University of Carnegie Mellon, where the Souter spoke in October 2014.

Announced the retirement of Souter in 2009, President Barack Obama Praise justice As a judge “who is just and independent thinking” that combines the “work ethic of a fever” with good sense of humor and integrity.

“He consistently opposed the label and rejected the absolute, instead of focusing only on one task – achieving fair results in the case in front of him,” Obama said, who then appointed judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill his chair.

“He is really true that someone who sees himself as someone who works in Washington but not from Washington,” Meir Feder, one of the Souter employees from the 1990 term, told ABC News in 2009.

Over the years, he had avoided Washington’s social scene when the court was not in a session, retreating to the white mountain forest where he liked to climb and read with fire. The famous soer does not have television or access to email.

“Far from not related to the modern world, he only refused to give up on his control over his own aspects of life that gave him in -depth satisfaction,” said David McKean, former CEO of the Presidential Library Foundation John F. Kennedy, in joint appearance with retirement of justice in 2010.

Born in Massachusetts as an only child, Souter spent most of her life in the rural city of Weare, New Hampshire. He registered at Harvard University as a scholar, studied philosophy, and then attended Oxford University as Rhodes Scholar.

He returned to Boston to complete a law degree in Harvard, where he graduated in 1966. He quickly climbed the ranks of the world of law, climbing to the Attorney General New Hampshire and, then, the judge at the Supreme Court of the State.

When the Soer was picked out of New Hampshire by President George HW Bush in 1990, he was slightly known outside the state. The US Senate confirmed the Soer to the Supreme Court with a 90-9 voice.

“I love my colleague. I like the work I do. There are days when I hope everything changes differently, but I still like the court and almost everyone in the building,” Souter said in 2010, during the rarely public performance in the JFK Presidential Library. “But I feel free to do things that I can’t do in court.”

Over the years after leaving the high court bench, Soer continued to be a judge, hearing more than 300 cases with the appointment for the first circuit appeal court in Boston and wrote a dozen opinion.

While he mostly remained out of the center of attention, the souter spoke enthusiastically about the need to support humanities and citizenship education throughout America.

“I do not believe there is a problem in American politics or American public life which is more important today that civil ignition that permeates the constitution of the United States and the structure of government,” Souter say in a speech at the University of New Hampshire Law School in 2012.

“Some aspects of the current American government that people on both sides feel frustrated partly are a function of the inability of people to understand how the government can and must function,” he said.

Asked in 2010 to mention the most important part of the US constitution, the Souter chose the same protection clause from the 14th amendment.

“In the end, it is a gold rule,” he said. “Treat other people as you want to be treated with a natural result that if not, you will not be treated like that either.”

ABC News’ Huma Khan contributed to this report.