Justice
Breyer’s future has been the subject of intense speculation in recent months. Liberal activists are calling on him to retire so President
With the Supreme Court
Breyer played an influential role in the just-completed term, helping to craft the type of consensus rulings he favors. He wrote the court’s opinions preserving the Affordable Care Act and rejecting a public high school’s punishment of a student for a profane social media post.
In a speech in April, he underscored the need to keep the court separate from politics, making arguments that suggested little interest in timing his retirement to meet Democrats’ political needs.
“If the public sees judges as politicians in robes, its confidence in the courts and in the rule of law itself can only diminish,” Breyer said in the speech, sponsored by Harvard Law School.
The legal writer David Lat, who runs the website Original Jurisdiction, reported previously that Breyer had hired four law clerks for the 2021-22 term. The Supreme Court on Friday released their names, along with those hired by the other justices. All eight active justices will have four law clerks, and retired Justice
Law clerks, typically recent law school graduates, work for a justice for a year, helping them digest briefs and write opinions.
(Adds information on Breyer’s role in recent term starting in fourth paragraph.)
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Tony Czuczka
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