When David H Souter, who has died aged 85, was appointed to the US supreme court by George HW Bush in 1990, it was called a “home run” for conservativism by Bush’s chief of staff John Sununu, who, as governor of New Hampshire had appointed Souter to the state’s supreme court. But it would turn into an appointment whose impact outweighed the appointee’s important judicial contributions.
Bush had previously considered a number of conservative ideologues: Senator Orrin Hatch, future Bill Clinton nemesis Kenneth Starr and Clarence Thomas (whose nomination was widely assumed to be held until the retirement of Thurgood Marshall, since both were black). As the Democrats held a 55-45 Senate majority, and in 1987 rejected Ronald Reagan’s choice, Robert Bork, for being an unrepentant ideologue, when the New Hampshire senator, Warren Rudman, recommended Souter to Sununu, he seemed a safe pair of conservative hands. He also had the advantage of having served quietly in his home state, without leaving a paper trail of controversy on national issues.
