DAVID Hackett Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, September 17, 1939.
Souter attended the local public school and was immediately recognized as a student of great promise. Souter’s parents sent him to Concord High School, he graduated in 1957. He continued his education at Harvard and later awarded a Rhodes scholarship to attend Oxford University for two years, he studied jurisprudence at Magdalen College, where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Souter began his career in public service as an assistant attorney general in the criminal division. He also performed special assignments for the attorney general and deputy attorney general. His major cases included a murder prosecution arising out of a gangland killing and a dispute between the Atlantic coast states and the federal government over title to under-sea resources outside the three-mile territorial limit. Gov. Meldrin Thompson, impressed with Souter’s work, appointed him attorney general in 1976 in 1978, after two years as attorney general, Souter was appointed associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court, the state’s trial court of general jurisdiction. In April 1990 President George Bush named Souter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Three months later, Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., retired from the Supreme Court, and Senator Rudman recommended that the presidnt appoint Souter to fill the seat. On July 23, 1990, Bush announced his intention to nominate Souter to the Court.
Souter was confirmed October 2, 1990, by a 90-9 vote, and took his seat on the Court a week later. He has since emerged as the intellectual leader of the Court’s centrist coalition, often carving out a middle ground for other justices…
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