Soutering Moderate Republicans Just Fine

Kermit Roosevelt, a former clerk for David Souter, disputes those who say that the retiring associate justice lurched to the left after being appointed by the first President Bush:

Souter's current position on the left wing of the court owes much more to movement by the court and the country than to any lurch on his part. The current court, after all, has seven Republican appointees and has been on a steady rightward drift since the Reagan years. The Republican Party has, too. I think Souter is indeed in many ways a Republican; it's just that his sort of Republican no longer really exists.