The Honorable David H. Souter is an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Souter was nominated for the Supreme Court in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush to succeed retiring Associate Justice William J. Brennan, often known as one of the Court's two most liberal members (the other being Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall, who would retire the following year). Thus, this vacancy represented a chance for the President Bush to shift the Court to the right, as his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, had tried to do. In nominating Souter, Bush had adopted what has come to be known as the "stealth strategy." Souter had a very small "paper trail," thus making him difficult to label as a conservative or a liberal. However, Bush had received assurances that Souter would be a conservative from his Chief of Staff, John Sununu, who had appointed Souter to the New Hampshire Supreme Court years earlier. Thus, he hoped to disarm liberal Senators who might oppose a blatantly conservative nominee, as they had done just three years earlier with Robert Bork. The strategy worked; Souter was easily confirmed by the U.S. Senate. However, Souter has gone on to align himself with the more liberal bloc on the Court, leading to Republican anger at President Bush for this alleged blunder.