Advocates react to Souter’s departure from Supreme Court

Bay Windows
May 4, 2009
"Justice Souter emerged as a thoughtful and dependable vote for gay equality and inclusion," said Evan Wolfson. Souter was the first justice to refer to LGBT people as "gay, lesbian, and bisexual," instead of "homosexuals." He did so in writing the 1995 opinion in Hurley v. GLIB -- a case in which a gay Irish group challenged the right of a St. Patrick's Day parade organizer in Boston to exclude it from participating as a contingent. In Hurley, said Wolfson, Souter's "tone and even use of respectful vocabulary helped shift the court to a new path." In the oral arguments during consideration of Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, said Wolfson, who argued the case as a Lambda attorney, Souter was "a serious and probing questioner that helped articulate the distinctions between Hurley and our case against the Boy Scouts discrimination." When the 5 to 4 majority ruled in favor of Boy Scouts excluding gays, noted Wolfson, Souter was among the dissenters. [Link]