Stephen Breyer
Stephen Breyer
Stephen Gerald Breyeris an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, and known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law, Breyer is generally associated with the more liberal side of the Court...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSupreme Court Justice
Date of Birth15 August 1938
CitySan Francisco, CA
CountryUnited States of America
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I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less.
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I have to, of course, describe the views of those who disagree with my approach.
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At the same time, we do live in a democracy. And for that reason I think it is appropriate to have some element of public control.
politics
At least there's a political input, but when you put on the robe, at that point the politics is over.
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The court has found no single mechanical formula that can accurately draw the constitutional line in every case,
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a hallmark of American justice in the last 30 years.
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And if a judge is going to be criticized for letting off a person and it turns out that person was innocent, that would be a pretty bad criticism.
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And in that confirmation process, I sat for 17 hours in front of a senate judiciary committee.
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I think it shows that if you have one group of people doing it, you'll get another group of people doing it.
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Well, just that there would be somebody in the office and the voters - it was more or less an understanding in the entire community, as long as that person was doing a good job on the merits, nobody was going to run against him.
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But once the person is selected, at that point that person is independent.
judging political process
Judges are appointed often through the political process
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And the problem is once you get into this campaign business and begin to have a lot of money, then the person on the bench begins to think - what's going to happen if I decide the case this way or that way?
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We are selected, but I grew up in California and in San Francisco and there was a system of electing judges.