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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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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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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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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I would guess my law clerks could meet (that standard) every day,
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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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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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Remember, 100 or 150 years ago, you could walk down the street, your neighbors might see you, they'd watch what you do,
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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.
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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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he joked later, while being photographed in his garden, ''my job is to look stiff without being stiff.
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He says, 'I've seen 50 million paintings, I know magenta,'
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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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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.