Another Remembrance of Justice Souter

Adding to Mark Movsesian’s tribute to his former boss – a “true gentleman,” Movsesian calls him – I thought I might share a couple of stories about the “gentlemanly” side of Justice Souter.  Though I knew Justice Souter hardly at all, he lodged himself in my memory as a result of a couple of encounters.

As many of you may know, there was (and, I trust, still is) a tradition at the Supreme Court that each chamber’s clerks invite each of the other Justices, one at a time, to join them for lunch at some eatery near the Court.  The year I clerked (1993-94, for RBG), we ended up having lunch with four of the Justices (Souter, Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas), missing out, for one reason or another given everyone’s busy schedules and the general chaos that often prevails at the Court, on Kennedy, O’Connor, Stevens, and Blackmun.

Lunch with Souter was delightful, but what I remember most was that each of the clerks received a nice handwritten note from the Justice, thanking us for treating him to lunch. In each of the notes he inserted something that was pegged specifically to something we had said at lunch; in my case, he made reference to a couple of things I had mentioned regarding my kids, who were both in elementary school at the time – something about Sam’s upcoming piano recital and Sarah’s decision about which middle school she wanted to attend.

We were thoroughly charmed – he was actually listening to what we were saying!

Then, on the last weekend of the Term, when all the decisions had been issued and everyone was packing up for the summer break, I went down to Souter’s chambers to see if any of his clerks were still around; I had become pretty good friends with a couple of them, and I wanted to say good-bye and see them off.  As it happened, none of them was around – but the Justice was there, standing in his outer office chatting with his secretary. He immediately invited me in for a chat, and we spent the next 15 minutes or so sitting in his office talking about this and that – our plans for the summer, where I was going to be working next, the intriguing similarities and differences between New Hampshire (where his heart is) and Vermont (where mine is), and the like. It felt, more than just a bit, like we were old pals, just chewing the fat on a summer afternoon.

The ability to put people at ease like that is very rare, certainly among Supreme Court Justices; Souter managed to communicate a genuine warmth of spirit that was quite remarkable – “gentlemanly” in the best sense of the term. May he rest in peace.

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