In a 2010 interview with the PBS NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer pulled out a pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution. He had recently written about the role of the Supreme Court in his book “Making Our Democracy Work,” viewing the justices’ work not through a lens of power, but rather through one of necessity.
Breyer told Brown that he chose the title because the framers “intended [the Constitution] as a document that wouldn’t be a painting in a museum for people to look at. They intended something that would be effective.”
He said that if you take the Constitution and its principles seriously — protecting human rights, assuring a degree of equality, splitting power among many groups and insisting on a rule of law — as a “recipe for an effective democracy,” that it not only “helps not only guide the court; it also helps shape attitudes among people in the country.”
Breyer, a senior member of the court’s liberal wing, announced last week that he will retire at the end of this term. Nominated by former President Bill Clinton in 1994, Breyer championed significant opinions on hot-button issues, like abortion and affordable health care. Throughout his time on the Supreme Court, Breyer has been known as a pragmatist, renowned for his ability to find common ground with his fellow justices. His retirement will allow President Joe Biden an opportunity to fulfill his campaign promise of appointing a Black woman to the high court.
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