Posted by Orin Kerr:
A Different Take on Justice Souter:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_03-2009_05_09.shtml#1241474985
In his post below,[1] my co-blogger Todd Zywicki writes:
In the end, I don't think that anyone would champion Souter as a
anything other than a mediocre Justice. It is hard to measure how
"good" a Justice is--one could imagine many different criteria:
smarts, influence, coalition-building skills, etc. No matter what
criteria one uses, however, doesn't it seem to be the consensus
that Souter is certainly near the bottom, if not at the bottom, of
the current Court? Perhaps this is an unusually talented Court. But
still, Souter is by any measure a weak link on the Court most would
think.
I disagree.
When I was a law clerk, five years ago, I ended up being very
impressed by Justice Souter. Of all the liberal-leaning Justices,
Souter became by far my favorite. True, he is not a great writer: His
opinions don't "sing." And I often disagreed with his approach. At the
same time, I ended up being very impressed with his intelligence and
integrity during the Term. He's a sharp judge, and his words are 100%
his own. Plus, I thought his oral argument questions were (and still
are) among the very best. When it's a case I know inside-and-out,the
chances are that Justice Souter will ask the most piercing question
that gets to the very heart of the matter. He's not a flashy guy, and
the outsider can't see the process that leads to his decisions. But at
least based on my experience, I thought he was an impressive Justice.
References
1. http://volokh.com/posts/1241470524.shtml
_______________________________________________
Volokh mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.powerblogs.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
