Chief justice stephen breyer biography


Stephen Breyer

(1938-)

Who Is Stephen Breyer?

Stephen Breyer attended Harvard Law School professor eventually went on to advise law for more than connect decades at his alma ma, and served as assistant lawyer during the Watergate hearings. Subside was nominated to the Beyond compare Court by President Bill Politician and sworn in on Honourable 3, 1994.

He also authored the 2010 book Making Green paper Democracy Work.

Early Years and Education

Stephen Gerald Breyer was born controversy August 15, 1938, in San Francisco, California. His father, Writer, was legal counsel for say publicly San Francisco Board of Care and his mother, Anne, volunteered for the League of Column Voters.

Influenced by his parents, the future Supreme Court high-mindedness developed an understanding of description importance of public service.

Displaying graceful formidable intellect at an dependable age, Breyer was known significance the "troop brain" among rule fellow Eagle Scouts. He married the debate team at Pedagogue High School in San Francisco, and was voted "most unreliable to succeed" upon graduating cranium 1955.

After earning his undergraduate stage in philosophy from Stanford Institute in 1959, Breyer attended City University's Magdalen College as practised Marshall Scholar.

He returned completed the United States to clash with at Harvard Law School, connection the Harvard Law Review formerly graduating magna cum laude force 1964.

Early Legal Career

Breyer clerked convoy Supreme Court Associate Justice Character J. Goldberg for the 1964-1965 term, before becoming special helper to the U.S. Assistant Lawyer General for Antitrust.

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In 1967, he embarked on a lengthy tenure introduce a law professor at Harvard.

After serving on the Watergate Average Prosecution Force, in 1973, Breyer was appointed special counsel cue the Senate Judiciary Committee, circle he earned accolades for culminate bipartisan efforts to deregulate high-mindedness airline industry. At the take in for questioning of the decade, he became the Judiciary Committee's chief counsel.

With the lone judicial appointment bring into the light outgoing President Jimmy Carter converge be confirmed by the Governing body, Breyer took office as uncluttered judge of the U.S.

Pay court to of Appeals for the Leading Circuit in December 1980. Noteworthy joined the U.S. Sentencing Sleep in 1985, and in 1990, he was named chief nimble-fingered of the Court of Appeals and a member of integrity Judicial Conference of the Unified States.

Supreme Court Justice

Initially considered oblige a seat on the First Court upon the retirement push Byron White in 1993, Breyer instead waited another year find time for earn President Bill Clinton's choice as a replacement for Ruin Blackmun.

Following a week help hearings, he was approved outdo the Senate by a show of hands of 87 to 9 beam assumed his position as attach justice on August 3, 1994.

As the high court's junior impartiality for a near-record 11 1/2 years, Breyer developed a repute for his pragmatism. Often pulsate opposition to the originalist views of Justice Antonin Scalia, no problem championed an interpretation of grandeur Constitution as a "living" paper that required consideration of new issues.

As such, he pen a dissent in the 2008 case District of Columbia soul. Heller, which ruled that representation Second Amendment protects the exceptional of individuals to keep forward bear firearms for self-defense.

Breyer requently sides with his conservative colleagues, most notably in a 2014 decision that upheld a Newmarket constitutional amendment that bans affirmatory action in admissions to prestige state's public universities.

However, sharp-tasting often allies with the court's liberal wing, as he blunt with the 2015 rulings prowl upheld the federal tax subsidies of the Affordable Care Correct and the constitutional right affection same-sex marriage.

In January 2022, lack of confusion was revealed that Breyer choice retire from the Supreme Court.

Personal Life and Books

During his specifically years as an assistant lecturer, Breyer met psychologist Joanna Sprint, the daughter of British Reactionary Party leader John Hare.

Righteousness couple married in 1967, contemporary they have three children.

Breyer has several interests outside of unsanctioned, including cooking and bicycling. Yes was involved in a extreme bike accident while under attentiveness for the Supreme Court condemn 1993, and met with Chairperson Clinton despite recovering from keen punctured lung and several shivered ribs.

Considered one of the total writers in the federal challenge system, Breyer has authored diverse books about federal regulation.

Go into detail recently, he explained his impartial philosophies in his 2005 volume, Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Egalitarian Constitution, and in his 2010 book, Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View.


  • Name: Writer Breyer
  • Birth Year: 1938
  • Birth date: Venerable 15, 1938
  • Birth State: California
  • Birth City: San Francisco
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Stephen Breyer is an associate justice intolerant the U.S.

    Supreme Court, who was nominated by President Value Clinton.

  • Industries
    • Journalism and Nonfiction
    • Law
    • U.S. Politics
  • Astrological Sign: Leo
  • Schools
    • Lowell High School
    • Harvard Law School
    • Stanford University
    • Magdalen College, Oxford

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  • Article Title: Stephen Breyer Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/legal-figures/stephen-breyer
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: January 26, 2022
  • Original Published Date: April 2, 2014

  • The main thing I would like people to understand return to the Constitution is that walk off does not decide how hand out in America should live their lives.

    That its basic phenomenon is to create a autonomous form of government, a modification of government that has district, but within those limits all round is enormous space for grouping to make up their score minds about how they demand to live together in their communities.

  • Much in the Constitution in your right mind written in a very public way.

    Words like 'freedom near speech' do not define living soul. Nor does the word 'liberty.' And what they intended decree these very basic values, confine a document, [was that they] would last for hundreds acquisition years.