His withdrawal, to 83 years, should allow Biden to choose his successor and get confirmation in the Senate before the midterm elections in November.
Le Monde
The liberal judge in the United States Stephen Breyer of Supreme Court will leave office at the end of the current session at the end of June, reported, Wednesday 26 January, several US media. The magistrate is expected to announce its decision in the White House soon, according to unnamed sources cited by NBC, CNN and NPR radio.
His withdrawal, to 83 years, should allow the Democratic president Joe Biden to choose his successor and get confirmation in the Senate before the elections in mid-term, in November. Biden promised that if he had the chance, he would call a black woman in the highest court of the country. The magistrate Ketanji Brown Jackson, the federal appeals court in Washington, is among the names circulating insistently.
Appointments to the Supreme Court, which arbitrates most major social issues in the United States, are subject in recent years of fierce political battles. During his tenure, Republican Donald Trump brought three judges within it, a total of nine, which firmly established the institution in conservatism. Their influence was particularly felt since September, with a sharp turn to the right. The temple of the law struck down mandatory vaccination in large companies decreed by Biden and appears ready to return on the right to abortion and to extend the right to bear arms.
Opposition the death penalty and defense of abortion
Dean of the Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer printed a deep mark on American progressive doctrine. He has served in more than a quarter-century institution, alongside his eight peers conservative majority. Being part of the minority never withdrew this brilliant magistrate joviality or the passion with which he defended stubborn way of his convictions, first and foremost its opposition to the death penalty. Among his other fights expensive: the environment or the right to abortion
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Known for his wit and his great culture, Stephen Breyer in 1994 became the second judge appointed to the high court by President Bill Clinton, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg, feminist icon died in 2020 at the age of 87. Just as “RBG”, over the chiseled arguments, Stephen Breyer has become a pillar of the temple of American law, responsible for ensuring the constitutionality of laws.
The Constitution precisely Breyer always wears a thin annotated copy in the inside pocket of his jacket. But other books are never far from this native of San Francisco, author of several books on freedoms or international law.
admirer of Proust and Stendhal
This philosophy is most keen Francophile probably American judges. Speaking fluent French, he sprinkles his speeches with references to Proust and Stendhal. He also likes to quote the statesman and philosopher Cicero Roman – “In times of war, the laws are silent” – to recall that during the Second World War, 70,000 Japanese Americans were interned without reason in camps.
After a prestigious academic career that saw him collect diplomas at Stanford University in the UK Faculty of Oxford and Harvard Law School, Stephen Breyer began his career in 1964 as an assistant judge of the Supreme Court Arthur Goldberg. A time specialized in the fight against the trusts, the lawyer was also advisor to the prosecutor in the Watergate scandal.
Married to a psychologist outcome of the British aristocracy, with whom he had three children, Breyer taught at Harvard until 1980. He then remained in New England, appointed by President Jimmy Carter the court of Appeals in Boston, it will eventually lead.
Human consensus Stephen Breyer would probably have obtained his appointment to the Supreme Court earlier if he had had its reputation tarnished by revelations about his failure to pay contributions to the pension funds for a worker. This case has delayed his arrival at the high court, which he then stubbornly defended the independence, despite repeated criticisms that make it a politicized body.