Description
Invitation to the Judicial Oath of Office Ceremony for Justice David H. Souter on October 9, 1990, administered by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Includes photograph of the occasion and inscription to Toni House, the chief spokeswoman of the Supreme Court.
Gold frame, museum glass, black paper backing. Full piece measures 19″ x 19″. From the private collection of Toni House, sold at auction in 2022. The white matte is inscribed: “For Toni House from David Souter / as on October 9, 1990.” Justice Souter took the constitutional oath of office the prior day at the White House, with President George H.W. Bush and his predecessor, William J. Brennan, in attendance.
The chief spokeswoman of the Supreme Court, Toni House (1943-1998), was a leading advocate for women’s rights in Washington D.C. Prior to joining the Supreme Court, she advocated for the inclusion of women in traditionally all-male events in Washington D.C, such as the Gridiron Dinner. In 1982, Chief Justice Warren E. Burger announced that House would become the public information officer of the court, where she was “the Court’s public voice, although not, as she often stressed, its interpreter.” She would serve in this position for 16 years, before an untimely death due to lung cancer in 1998.
