Departures: Late Supreme Court justice slid leftward

David Souter

A Supreme Court justice who disappointed conservatives as his jurisprudence slid to the left, Souter died May 8. He was 85. President George H.W. Bush picked Souter even though the New Hampshire Supreme Court justice lacked a track record on controversial national topics like abortion. Easily confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1990, Souter surprised his conservative backers in 1992 when he sided with the court’s liberals in upholding a right to abortion in the landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Souter came to be most closely associated with liberal stalwarts like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens. Souter, a lifelong bachelor, retired from the court in 2009, citing a desire to return to his simpler life in New Hampshire.

George Ryan

A Republican governor of Illinois brought low by corruption charges, Ryan died May 2 at the age of 91. Ryan spent decades rising through the ranks of Illinois state politics, eventually becoming governor of the state in 1999. One year into office, Ryan paused all executions in Illinois, saying the state’s criminal justice system had become riddled with error and he feared sending an innocent man to his death. Dozens of Ryan’s political subordinates pleaded guilty to corruption charges for peddling government contracts and licenses dating back to Ryan’s time as Illinois Secretary of State. Ryan himself was found guilty of fraud and racketeering after serving his single gubernatorial term and sentenced in 2006 to 6½ years in prison.

David Horowitz

A polemicist who in his life as an intellectual nearly traversed the entire ideological spectrum, Horowitz died April 29. He was 86. Already identified as a Trotskyite in a 1967 CIA report, Horowitz established his bona fides as a radical by becoming an editor of Ramparts magazine in 1968. He rubbed shoulders with Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton as part of the New Left—a group of revolutionary Marxists that came to prominence in the 1960s and ’70s. By 1984, Horowitz abandoned Marxism and cast a ballot to reelect President Ronald Reagan. Horowitz eventually wielded his radical pen in support of Zionism and against what he identified as a suffocating culture of political correctness on college campuses.

Samuel Escobar

A Protestant theologian and scholar who argued the gospel should accompany social justice in Latin America, Escobar died April 29 at the age of 90. Although born in Catholic-dominated Peru, Escobar grew up in an evangelical church that adhered to the Westminster Confession of Faith. After becoming involved in student ministry in Peru, Escobar became the director of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Canada. During an international missions conference in 1974, Escobar argued that poverty and corruption in Latin America demanded evangelicals prioritize social justice—a stance that provoked pushback from conservative church leaders. He later served on faculty at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Pope Francis

Known for the simplicity he brought to an audacious office and for social commentary that made conservative Catholics nervous, Pope Francis died April 21. He was 88. Born in Argentina as Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he took vows to become a Jesuit novice in 1960. Bergoglio rose to the position of cardinal in 2001 and became the first Jesuit and first South American elevated to the papacy when he took the office in 2013. As pope, Francis eschewed most luxuries, choosing to live in a more austere guesthouse rather than in the Apostolic Palace. Francis’ restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass and stray comments appearing to soften the church’s position on gender roles and homosexuality flustered many traditional Catholics.

Roy Cooper

A rodeo cowboy who became known as one of the greatest calf ropers ever, Cooper died April 29. He was 69. The son of a professional calf roper, Cooper first began winning major prizes as a college student in Oklahoma. In his first professional season in 1976, Cooper became a sensation and was named the sport’s rookie of the year. Cooper’s style—a novel and athletic way to approach the roped calf combined with a faster method for tying the animal’s legs —earned him the nickname “Super Looper.” In his career, Cooper won six calf tie-down championships and in 1983 took home three World Championships, winning rodeo’s Triple Crown. “I was lucky,” Cooper later told the Let’s Freakin’ Rodeo podcast. “And I had a great, great horse.”