No More Souters - Revisited

More Perfect

WNYC Studios

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4.8 • 14.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Justice David Souter has died. Souter was one of the most private, low-profile justices ever to have served on the Supreme Court. He rarely gave interviews or speeches. Yet his tenure was anything but low profile. Deemed a “home run” nominee by Republicans, Souter defied partisan expectations on the bench and ultimately ceded his seat to a Democratic president. As we reflect on his legacy, we wanted to share this episode again. Produced two years ago, this episode tells the story of how “No More Souters” became a rallying cry for Republicans and inspired a backlash that would change the Court forever.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Gabrielle Burbe. I'm one of the producers who helped make more perfect. And today,
0:05.7	we got the news that Justice David Souter died. Justice Souter was known for being a deeply private
0:12.5	and reserved justice, but his time on the court had a big impact on our country and how we
0:19.7	choose Supreme Court justices now. Today, we've been
0:24.1	thinking about that legacy. More Perfix host, Julia Longoria and I made an episode about
0:30.7	Justice Souter a couple years back, so we wanted to share that episode again for you all.
0:36.9	Here's the show.
0:54.0	So, where do we start?
0:57.6	Why don't you tell me who you are and what you do?
1:01.4	Okay, so my name is Ashley Lopez and I'm a political correspondent for NPR.
1:07.3	But you are here today.
1:09.0	Yeah.
1:10.2	Because of your, do we want to call it an obsession?
1:14.0	You know what? I guess obsession is maybe a little bit too much, but it's not far. It's not far.
1:21.4	I've just been very intrigued for many years by David Suter.
1:26.9	Justice, David Suter has informed the White House he will retire at the end of a Supreme Court
1:31.3	term in June.
1:32.6	Justice David Suter retired in 2009 when Barack Obama was president.
1:38.6	First, I thought he was interesting because he was appointed by a Republican and was
1:44.0	seating his seat to a Democratic
1:45.6	president. Like, that's a kind of a weird thing. Either you die in the seat or you hand it over
1:51.5	to the party that put you into the seat. Souter is perhaps best known as one of the most surprising
	...

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