Supreme Court pragmatist says he’s retiring
For nearly three decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer routinely found himself on the losing side but managed to cultivate collegiality as a centrist problem-solver, concerned about the real-world implications of the court’s decisions and protecting its reputation.
Often overshadowed by the late liberal icon Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Breyer will leave a legacy when he retires at the end of the current term as a steadfast supporter of abortion rights, the environment and health-care coverage – and a questioner of the constitutionality of the death penalty.
Breyer, a nominee of President Bill Clinton, has served his entire tenure on a court with conservatives in the majority that became more conservative the longer he served. He is retiring at a time when six of the nine justices are ideologically to his right and chosen by Republican presidents.
But Breyer looked for compromise even as he defended affirmative action in university admissions, same-sex marriage and the First Amendment.
“He is a pragmatist who believes deeply that our Constitution and our government should work for the American people, and those beliefs in turn have shaped the way he thinks about the role of the courts in our system of government,” Brianne Gorod, a former law clerk to Breyer and now chief counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, said in a statement Wednesday.
Last term, Breyer wrote the majority opinion when the court turned down a Republican-led challenge to the Affordable Care Act. And in an 8-to-1 ruling, he defended the First Amendment rights of public school students.