…[A] close friend, echoing how Casey "wasn't a surprise," especially given "David's respect for #precedent," stressed that people did not appreciate how "David's a #judicial conservative, NOT a #political conservative.”…

Neither the 1992-93 or 1993-94 terms would prove as significant as 1991-92. The most striking statistic of 1991-92, as Casey exemplified, was the degree to which Anthony Kennedy had shifted away from Rehnquist & toward #Souter & O'Connor.

[another noteworthy section is on Souter’s confirmation hearings]

When the Senate #Judiciary Cmte hearing began…Senators & reporters quickly realized that Souter was an impressively erudite nominee.…Amid all the concepts & issues he was asked to address, 2…stand out as most revealing: #liberty & #precedent. …Specifically, Souter stressed that in the #DueProcess clause language of the #5thAmendment & #14thAmendment, "the concept of liberty IS NOT LIMITED BY THE SPECIFIC SUBJECTS.”

“But whatever the premises of opposition may be, only the most convincing justification under accepted standards of #precedent could suffice to demonstrate that a later decision overruling the first was anything but a #surrender to #political pressure, & an unjustified repudiation of the principle on which the Court staked its #authority….So to overrule under fire in the absence of the most compelling reason to re-examine a #watershed decision would subvert the Court's #legitimacy…”
#DavidSouter

The most eloquent section of the opinion was the discussion of #Roe & the principle of #StareDecisis — Latin for #judicial respect of existing #precedent — that had been crafted principally by #DavidSouter. Souter's words in Casey spoke not only for the Court, but also for the essence of America's judicial heritage & for the very core of Souter's own judicial background.

The cases before #SCOTUS involve Gwynne Wilcox of the National #Labor Relation Board #NLRB, which oversees laws protecting #workers’ rights, & Cathy A. Harris of the Merit Systems Protection Board #MSPB, which protects federal govt workers from #partisan practices — as well as a 90-year-old court #precedent the #Trump admin is seeking to overturn.

The #DOJ is aiming to get these cases to #SCOTUS, where it’s betting that enough of the right-wing justices will agree to overturn the high court’s own #precedent on #independent agencies — encapsulated primarily in a 1936 case called Humphrey’s Executor — & axe the removal protections that keep leadership at such entities as the #NLRB or #MSPB insulated from political will or vindictiveness.

In the lower #courts, #judges can serve for life. So the more a president appoints, the more he or she can shape the country. #SCOTUS hears only about 80 cases per year, meaning that lower courts are often the final arbiter on many issues. They set #precedent on #criminal #justice, #bankruptcy proceedings, #corporate disputes & #antitrust enforcement, & on whether federal #laws & rules are #constitutional.