Here is a look at the life of Stephen Breyer, associate justice of the US Supreme Court.
Personal:
Birth date: August 15, 1938
Birth place: San Francisco, California
Birth name: Stephen Gerald Breyer
Father: Irving Breyer, an attorney
Mother: Anne (Roberts) Breyer
Marriage: Joanna (Hare) Breyer (September 4, 1967-present)
Children: Chloe, Nell and Michael
Education: Stanford University, A.B., 1959; Oxford University (Marshall Scholar), B.A., 1961; Harvard Law School, LL.B., 1964, graduated magna cum laude
Religion: Jewish
Other Facts:
Nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
Former assistant prosecutor during the Watergate hearings in the 1970s.
Is an Eagle Scout.
Timeline:
1964-1965 – Law clerk for Justice Arthur Goldberg, US Supreme Court.
1965-1967 – Special assistant to the assistant attorney general at the US Department of Justice.
1967-1994 – Holds various positions at Harvard University Law School, including professor and lecturer.
1974-1975 – Special counsel for the US Senate Judiciary Committee.
1977-1980 – Professor of government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
1979-1980 – Chief counsel for the US Senate Judiciary Committee.
1981-1990 – Serves as a judge for the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
1985-1989 – Member of the US Sentencing Commission.
1990-1994 – Serves as the chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
August 3, 1994 – Sworn in to the Supreme Court by President Clinton, filling the seat held by former Justice Harry Blackmun.
June 2004 – Named by Chief Justice William Rehnquist to lead a panel of justices to consider ways to police members of the federal judiciary while allowing them to maintain their traditional level of independence.
September 2005 – Breyer’s book, “Active Liberty: Interpreting our Democratic Constitution,” is published.
October 30, 2008 – Fordham University Law School – a Jesuit school – gives an award to Breyer, causing some controversy due to his pro-abortion stance.
September 2010 – His book, “Making Our Democracy Work,” is published.
February 9, 2012 – While vacationing on the Caribbean island of Nevis, Breyer is robbed by an intruder armed with a machete. No one is hurt in the incident.
April 26, 2013 – Injures his right shoulder in a fall from his bicycle. The injury requires reverse shoulder replacement surgery the following day.
June 29, 2015 – In the case Glossip v. Gross, Breyer raises the question of whether thedeath penalty is unconstitutional in a 40-page minority dissenting opinion, which Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins. The judges vote 5-4 to uphold the use of a controversial drug for lethal injection in executions.
September 2015 – Breyer’s book, “The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities,” is published.
May 23, 2016 – During a public appearance, Breyer says he does not feel the Supreme Court is diminished without an immediate fill-in for Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier in the year, and having a possible 4-4 vote split would only make an impact in a few of the 70 to 80 cases they hear each year.
