David Souter during his Senate confirmation hearings in 1990. Photo: CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images David Souter, the former U.S. Supreme Court justice who retired at the age of 69 and died this week at 85, was viewed by liberals as a man of conservative temperament, if not necessarily conservative views. New York Times legal columnist Linda Greenhouse presented this take on Souter succinctly: Justice Souter portrayed himself as he was: a judge of basically conservative instincts who took as his