Breyer, a Harvard law student who also taught at the school, is the oldest judge on the court at 82. President Joe Biden’s election and the Democrats’ paper-thin Senate majority have given rise to talks that Breyer, who in 1994 appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton may soon retire, perhaps as early as this summer.
Although he did not say anything in public about his plans, the speech could be read as a kind of farewell speech, filled with calls for the public to regard the judges more as ‘junior politicians’.
He noted, for example, that despite the court’s conservative majority, the court has for the past year refrained from participating in the 2020 election, delivered a victory at the Louisiana abortion clinics and former President Donald Trump’s attempt to to terminate legal protection for immigrants, rejected. brought to the United States as children.
Trump has appointed three judges in court, the last of whom, Amy Coney Barrett, replaced the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in October.
Breyer acknowledged that conservative views prevailed in other decisions.
“These considerations convince me that it is wrong to regard the court as another political institution,” he said.
Breyer’s speech was part of Harvard’s Scalia lecture series, named after the late Judge Antonin Scalia. Breyer and Scalia were high court colleagues for more than two decades.