Breyer supreme court retirement
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Stephen Breyer, pragmatic liberal, will retire at end of term
SCOTUS NEWS
on Jan 26, 2022at 12:46 pm
Stephen Breyer has served on the Supreme Court since August 1994. (U.S. Supreme Court photo)
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Justice Stephen Breyer, a devoted pragmatist and the senior member of the Supreme Court’s liberal wing, will retire from the court at the end of the 2021-22 term, NBC News reported on Wednesday. During a nearly 28-year career on the court, Breyer shunned rigid approaches to legal interpretation, often seeking functional rulings with an eye toward real-world consequences. He wrote major opinions favoring abortion rights, demarcating the separation of powers, and turning back a challenge to the Affordable Care Act. In his later years, he repeatedly questioned the constitutionality of the death penalty. His retirement opens the door for President Joe Biden to fulfill a campaign promise and nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
The decisi
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Retirement of Stephen Breyer
After nearly 28 years on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring at the end of the 2021-22 term. Here is a collection of resources on Breyer’s work, his retirement, and the upcoming nomination of a successor. A reverse-chronological list of all SCOTUSblog coverage of Breyer’s retirement is at the bottom of this page.
Breyer’s retirement
Symposium on Breyer’s jurisprudence
Tributes to Breyer
Nomination of a successor
Breyer’s writing
TRIBUTE TO JUSTICE BREYER
Always an optimist, always a teacher
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Stephen Breyer
US Supreme Court justice from 1994 to 2022
Stephen Breyer | |
|---|---|
Official portrait, c. 2006 | |
| In office August 3, 1994 – June 30, 2022 | |
| Nominated by | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Harry Blackmun |
| Succeeded by | Ketanji Brown Jackson |
| In office March 1990 – August 3, 1994 | |
| Preceded by | Levin H. Campbell |
| Succeeded by | Juan R. Torruella |
| In office December 10, 1980 – August 3, 1994 | |
| Nominated by | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | Seat established |
| Succeeded by | Sandra Lynch |
| Born | Stephen Gerald Breyer (1938-08-15) August 15, 1938 (age 86) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic[1] |
| Spouse | Joanna Hare (m. 1967) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Charles Breyer (brother) |
| Education | |
| Signature | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | United States Army United States Army Reserve |
| Years of service | 1957–1
|