Former US supreme court justice David Souter dies aged 85

Retired supreme court Justice David H Souter, the ascetic bachelor and New Hampshire Republican who became a darling of liberals during his nearly 20 years on the bench, has died. Souter’s retirement gave Barack Obama his first supreme court vacancy to fill. Reversing the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, Souter wrote, would be a “surrender to political pressure. Souter was the 105th supreme court justice, and only its sixth bachelor. “He had an unerring knack of finding the weakest link in your argument,” the veteran supreme court advocate Carter Phillips said.