Stephen Breyer Quotes

I thought that that was an effort to inject a popular element, a democratic element into the selection of a person who, once he is selected and confirmed, is beyond electoral control.

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.

We are selected, but I grew up in California and in San Francisco and there was a system of electing judges.

It's important to every American that the law protect his or her basic liberty.

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?

To threaten the institution is to threaten fair administration of justice and protection of liberty.

The advantages? Exercise, no parking problems, gas prices, it's fun. An automobile is expensive. You have to find a place to park and it's not fun. So why not ride a bicycle? I recommend it.

And in that confirmation process, I sat for 17 hours in front of a senate judiciary committee.

The best clue to what a person thinks is what he says.

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.

Nobody wants a judge to be subject to the political whim of the moment.

Ultimately, the question of campaign contributions will be decided by the public.

But once the person is selected, at that point that person is independent.

This understanding, underlying constitutional interpretation since the New Deal, reflects the Constitution's demands for structural flexibility sufficient to adapt substantive laws and institutions to rapidly changing social, economic, and technological conditions.

Independence means you decide according to the law and the facts.

Independence doesn't mean you decide the way you want.

You will read in the newspaper more often about federal courts, but the law that affects people, the trials that affect human beings are by and large in the state courts.

You can have many different selection systems, but the bottom line has to be a system that, once the judge takes office that judge will feel that he or she is to decide the case without reference to the popular thing or the popular will of the moment.