David Souter Knew When to Step Down

Opinion|The Man Who Knew When to Step Down

On May 8, an extraordinary American died. He set an example that seemed unremarkable at the time but looms much larger in hindsight. I’m speaking of Justice David Souter, and regardless of what you thought of his jurisprudence, he made one decision that every American should applaud and every American leader should emulate.

He knew when to step aside.

President George H.W. Bush nominated Souter to the Supreme Court in 1990. He was confirmed the same year, served 19 years on the court and retired in 2009. He wasn’t a young man then — he was just shy of his 70th birthday — but it turns out that he had lots of years left to live.

He was still performing at a high level. I didn’t share his judicial philosophy (and frequently disagreed with his rulings), but I never doubted his integrity or his intellectual rigor. Lawyers who argued before him knew that he could be a formidable justice. He routinely exposed and picked apart weak arguments.

After he left the court, he spent the next 16 years as one of America’s quietest public officials. He heard cases at the Court of Appeals (retired Supreme Court justices sometimes hear arguments at the Courts of Appeals), but he rarely spoke publicly, and he made almost no news at all. He served his country, he went back home and we hardly heard from him again.

There was a time when Justice Souter’s decision would be unremarkable. Justices retired all the time, and while some stayed in office well into their 80s (Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and John Paul Stevens were 90 when they retired), for most of American history, the average age of retirement for Supreme Court justices hovered between 66 and 73 years old.

I’m talking about retirement for an obvious reason — once again, Americans are embroiled in arguments about the advanced age of all too many of our judges and politicians. And once again, the nation is confronting a profound political and legal transformation that might not have happened if only powerful people (and their powerful enablers) let someone else have a turn.