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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The court has found no single mechanical formula that can accurately draw the constitutional line in every case,
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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
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Breyer said, ''that certainly looks to text, certainly looks to history, certainly looks to tradition and precedent -- but that also emphasizes heavily the purpose of this particular provision and the consequences as viewed in terms of the purposes, is more likely to get at what this law is about, what area of human life it is seeking to affect and how. That's what I think the essence of law is.
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Virginia is now pursuing an execution schedule that leaves less time for argument and for court consideration than the court's rules provide for ordinary cases.
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Well it's fairly important that everyone have a lawyer and so we have a system that you can't convict a person without a lawyer, even if he's guilty.
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But the wonderful thing about human memory is, it forgets, ... And so you always have another chance. People don't remember after a time. The computer remembers forever. There it is: picture recorded.
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I would guess my law clerks could meet (that standard) every day,
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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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We developed a system of protecting human liberty such that judges and independent judges are a necessary part of that protection.
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Ultimately, the question of campaign contributions will be decided by the public.
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Would I want to be judged by whether or not I was popular? Wouldn't I want to be judged on what was true as opposed to what might be popular?
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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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Speed in reaching a final decision may help create legal certainty,
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Once you're in a system where there are contributions being made, it's certainly not the case that everybody expects something back.