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| − | {{Officeholder
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| − | |name=Stephen Breyer
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| − | |image=Sryer.jpg
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| − | |party=
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| − | |spouse=Joanna Freda Hare
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| − | |religion=[[Jewish]]
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| − | |offices=
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| − | {{Officeholder/Supreme Court Justice
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| − | |role=Associate
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| − | |nominator=[[Bill Clinton]]
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| − | |terms=August 3, 1994 – present
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| − | |preceded=[[Harry A. Blackmun]]
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| − | |former=n
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| − | |succeeded=
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| − | }}
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| − | |military=y
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| − | |allegiance=[[United States]]
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| − | |rank=Corporal
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| − | |branch=[[United States Army]]
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| − | |serviceyears=1957 – 1965
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| − | }}
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| − | '''Stephen Gerald Breyer''' (born August 15, 1938) is an Associate Justice of the [[U.S. Supreme Court]], and is one of the most consistent liberal votes on the court.
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| − | ==Early life==
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| − | Stephen Breyer was born in San Francisco.
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| − | ===Education===
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| − | Breyer earned undergraduate degrees from [[Stanford University]] and Magdalen College, [[Oxford]], and received his LL.B. from [[Harvard]] Law School.
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| − | ==Career==
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| − | In 1964 he served as a [[law clerk]] to Supreme Court Justice [[Arthur Goldberg]]. Following his clerkship, Breyer held several government posts, including Special Assistant to the Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Antitrust, Assistant Special Prosecutor for the [[Watergate]] Special Prosecution Force, and Special Counsel and Chief Counsel to the [[U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee]]. Breyer is credited with playing a key role in obtaining deregulation of the airline industry in the late 1970s. Breyer was a member of the faculty of Harvard Law School from 1967 to 1994 and the Harvard University [[Kennedy School of Government]] from 1977 to 1980.
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| − | Justice Breyer served as Judge on the First Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals from 1980 to 1990, and as Chief Judge of the First Circuit, 1990-1994.
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| − | Justice Breyer also served on the United States Sentencing Commission between 1985 and 1989, where he helped develop the federal [[Sentencing Guidelines]] to impose uniformity on sentencing in all federal criminal cases.
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| − | He was nominated to the Supreme Court by [[President Clinton]], and joined the court August 3, 1994.<ref>http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/biographiescurrent.pdf</ref>
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| − | ==Judicial Philosophy==
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| − | On issues of religion, Justice Breyer is the least [[liberal]] of the four-Justice [[liberal]] voting bloc on the Court, which also includes Justices [[John Paul Stevens]], [[David Souter]] and [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]], and former Justice [[Sandra Day O'Connor]]. Justice Breyer broke with that voting bloc to provide the pivotal fifth vote to allow the [[Texas]] government to maintain a monument to the [[Ten Commandments]] on its capitol grounds in [[Van Orden v. Perry]].
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| − | But on the issue of [[stare decisis]], Justice Breyer is leading the defense against [[liberal]] precedents vulnerable to being overturned by the [[Roberts Court]]. The most prominent target among the precedents is [[Roe v. Wade]], but many other lesser-known precedents were quickly overturned in the 2006-2007 sitting of the [[Roberts Court]]. This led Justice Breyer to declare on the last day of the term, perhaps in exasperation, "What has happened to stare decisis?"<ref>''[[Parents Involved in Cmty. Schs. v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1]]'' (2007) (Breyer, J., dissenting)</ref> Justice Breyer dissented, on the grounds of [[stare decisis]], from 2007 decisions in:
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| − | *''[[Leegin Creative Leather Prods. v. PSKS, Inc.]]''
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| − | *''[[Parents Involved in Cmty. Schs. v. Seattle Sch. Dist. No. 1]]''
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| − | *''[[Morse v. Frederick]]''
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| − | *''[[FEC v. Wis. Right to Life, Inc.]]'' (joining Justice Souter's dissent)
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| − | According to Senator [[Arlen Specter]], he had a chance encounter with Justice Breyer at a summer meeting after the end of the 2006-2007 term, and Specter publicly stated that Justice Breyer told him there were "eight" decisions in which the [[Roberts Court]] had overruled precedent.<ref>[https://www.politico.com/news/stories/0707/5099.html Specter to probe Supreme Court decisions], [[Politico]]</ref> Specter then publicly said he was going to review the testimony provided by nominees Chief Justice [[John Roberts]] and Justice [[Sam Alito]] to the Senate Judiciary Committee to see if they were abiding by it.
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| − | On the issue of continued advisory use of the controversial [[Sentencing Guidelines]], Justice Breyer voted for preserving rather than invalidating them.
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| − | Justice Breyer agrees with the belief that the [[United States Constitution]] is a [[Living Constitution]].
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| − | ===Second Amendment===
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| − | Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has alleged that the [[Founding Fathers]] never intended for guns to go unregulated. Breyer believes that the [[Second Amendment]] allows for restrictions on the individual, including an all-out ban on handguns in the nation's capital.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/12/breyer-founding-fathers-allowed-restrictions-guns/ Breyer: Founding Fathers Would Have Allowed Restrictions on Guns], [[Fox News|FoxNews.com]], Published December 12, 2010.</ref>
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| − | ==References==
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| − | {{reflist}}
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| − | {{Supreme Court|rehnquist=y|roberts=y}}
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| − | {{DEFAULTSORT:Breyer, Stephen}}
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| − | [[Category:United States Supreme Court Justices]]
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| − | [[Category:Judicial Activism]]
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| − | [[Category:American Jews]]
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| − | [[Category:Homosexual Agenda]]
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| − | [[Category:Liberals]]
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| − | [[Category:Democrats]]
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| − | [[Category:Anti Second Amendment]]
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| − | [[Category:Eagle Scouts]]
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