David Souter

It may be that the seemingly intrinsic attraction that past time has for me is merely a desire for escapism, as I look out at the nation and world with little optimism. ”

History provides an antidote to cynicism about the past. ”

Meaning comes from the capacity to see what is not in some simple, objective sense there on the printed page. ”

We hold that an employer is vicariously liable for actionable discrimination caused by a supervisor, but subject to an affirmative defense looking to the reasonableness of the employer's conduct as well as that of a plaintiff victim. ”

If speech always wins, even if it's an atomic secret that's going to be broadcast to our enemies, it's easy to make a decision. Speech always wins. But it doesn't... Liberty doesn't always trump equality or equality always trump liberty. ”

We want order and security, and we want liberty. And we want not only liberty but equality as well. ”

The Constitution has a good share of deliberately open-ended guarantees, like rights to due process of law, equal protection of the law, and freedom from unreasonable searches. ”

The court has to decide which of our approved desires has the better claim, right here, right now, and a court has to do more than read fairly when it makes this kind of choice. ”

I am not a pessimist, but I am not an optimist about the future of American democracy. ”

There is a danger to judicial independence when people have no understanding of how the judiciary fits into the constitutional scheme. ”