I have actually had a conversation with only one Supreme Court Justice about law,[1]and that was Justice David Souter-who died just last week. During my second year of law school, my now husband and I happened upon the ABA Midyear meeting being held in Boston’s Faneuil Hall[2] while walking around. As law students, we were allowed free admission to the meeting, so we randomly popped in to a panel on the 4th Amendment and Exclusionary Rule. At this panel, Ahkil Reed Amar was arguing that (as he put it in an article written a few years later), “The Fourth Amendment today is an embarrassment.”[3]
Justice Souter, who was also on the panel, begged to differ. As did I. So, I raised my hand and asked Professor Amar a question that essentially trapped him and proved that his point was not as fleshed out as one would hope.[4] Professor Amar looked me up and down and asked me who I was. And remember, we had literally come in off the street and shown a law school ID to walk in, so I was dressed like a legal hobo. I told him I was a law student at Northeastern. He then laughed and basically said, “so you know nothing,” and moved on to another attendee-my question was no longer worth his time. He was rude and dismissive, but the panel was almost over, so we stayed until the end.
As everyone was heading towards the exit, I saw Justice Souter walking towards me-and he stopped and said, “ooh, you really got him worked up, he didn’t have answer. Good job.” And I think my heart stopped. And my brain surely shut down because all I could to say to him in that utterly fangirl moment in a law student’s life was that I had a picture of him accompanying Justice Brennan at Justice Marshall’s funeral on my fridge.
Face plant.
But he kindly smiled and said that it had been great to see Justice Brennan (who he had replaced on the Court) and did not know there was a picture of that moment. Others in the crowd swept him away after that.
Justice Souter was a quiet, brilliant, and private man. People complained that he was not the Conservative he claimed to be-but to be clear he never claimed to be anything but a judge trying to do right by the Constitution above all else. By that description, he was exactly what he claimed to be. I miss him on the Court, especially in the current legal climate.
I will always remember that he definitely had a twinkle in his eye when I spoke to him, and I believe many others had that experience with him over the years. I never felt more ready to be a lawyer than in that moment. My law student heart grew three sizes that day.
(Liz Stillman)
[1] I did once deliver a report and recommendation to Justice Sotomayor’s Chambers in the Southern District of New York when I did a co-op with a Magistrate Judge there in law school. She thanked me-and I hightailed it out of there because we were late delivering it and I didn’t have an excuse.
[2] Totally worth a visit when you come to conference!
[3] https://akhilamar.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Fourth_Amendment_First_Principles-2.pdf
[4] I have no recollection of the exact question but I do recall a pounding heart and sweaty palms.
