Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to Give UM Lecture

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to Give UM Lecture University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present University Relations 8-26-2002 Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer to give UM lecture University of Montana--Missoula. Office of University Relations Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/newsreleases Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation University of Montana--Missoula. Office of University Relations, "Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer to give UM lecture" (2002). University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present. 18010. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/newsreleases/18010 This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University Relations at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Montana UNIVERSITY RELATIONS • MISSOULA, MT 59812 • 406-243-2522 • FAX: 406-243-4520 Aug. 26, 2002 Contact: Shelley Hopkins, director of external relations, School of Law, (406) 243-4319. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER TO GIVE UM LECTURE MISSOULA-- The University of Montana School of Law will host its third member of the U.S. Supreme Court when Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer speaks at the William B. Jones and Judge Edward A. Tamm Judicial Lecture Series. Breyer, the Supreme Court’s 108th justice, will give the sixth installment in the Jones- Tamm Lecture Series at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, in the University Theatre. He will discuss "The Work of the Supreme Court." The lecture is free and open to the public. The series is presented by UM’s law school to enhance understanding of the judicial system. Previous speakers have included justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas. William J. Bennett, former U.S. education secretary and drug czar, gave the last Jones-Tamm lecture in March. Breyer was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Clinton in 1994. Born in San Francisco in 1938, he was educated at Stanford and Oxford universities before earning his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1964. After clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Arthur J. Goldberg and teaching at Harvard, Breyer served as special assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice during 1965-67; as assistant special prosecutor for the Watergate Special Prosecution Force in 1973; as special counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Administrative Practices, during 1974-75; and as -more- Brever.rl—2 chief counsel to the U.S. Judiciary Committee during 1979-80. In 1980, he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit following nomination by President Carter. From 1990 to 1994, Breyer was chief judge of the First Circuit. The Jones-Tamm Lecture Series honors the memory of two former Montanans who had distinguished careers on the federal bench in Washington, D.C. Both Jones and Tamm were trial judges on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; Tamm also served on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The two judges had strong ties to Montana and its law school. ### PS State media, Montana Lawyer Breyer.rl.
Recommended publications
  • The Death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Initial Considerations for Congress
    Legal Sidebari The Death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Initial Considerations for Congress September 21, 2020 On September 18, 2020, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, passed away at the age of eighty-seven, vacating a seat on the High Court that she had held for twenty-seven years. Nominated to replace Justice Byron White in 1993, Justice Ginsburg already had a trailblazing career as a law school professor; Supreme Court litigator; co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project; and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (D.C. Circuit) for thirteen years. Several of her opinions have been consequential, including her 1996 majority opinion in United States v. Virginia, holding that women could not be denied admission to the Virginia Military Institute on the basis of their sex. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said in a recent statement that “no American has ever done more than Justice Ginsburg to ensure equal justice under law for women.” Justice Ginsburg was also noted for her pointed dissents, including in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), where the Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (2007), where the Court rejected a Title VII employment discrimination claim. In more recent years, Justice Ginsburg gained recognition in popular culture, becoming known by the moniker “the notorious RBG.” She was the subject of books, movies, and an opera, and in 2015, was named one of Time magazine’s one hundred most influential people.
    [Show full text]
  • Elena Kagan Can't Say That: the Sorry State of Public Discourse Regarding Constitutional Interpretation
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Washington University St. Louis: Open Scholarship Washington University Law Review Volume 88 Issue 2 2010 Elena Kagan Can't Say That: The Sorry State of Public Discourse Regarding Constitutional Interpretation Neil J. Kinkopf Georgia State University College of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Judges Commons Recommended Citation Neil J. Kinkopf, Elena Kagan Can't Say That: The Sorry State of Public Discourse Regarding Constitutional Interpretation, 88 WASH. U. L. REV. 543 (2010). Available at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_lawreview/vol88/iss2/7 This Commentary is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Law Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ELENA KAGAN CAN’T SAY THAT: THE SORRY STATE OF PUBLIC DISCOURSE REGARDING CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION NEIL J. KINKOPF MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES From: Ray L. Politik, Counsel to the President Re: Proposed Statement of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, on her nomination to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Date: June 2010 _______________________________________________________ I have reviewed the draft statement that Elena Kagan has proposed submitting to the Senate Judiciary Committee.1 In this statement, Dean Kagan seeks to educate the Judiciary Committee and the American people to think differently about the enterprise of constitutional interpretation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Supreme Court and Its Shrinking Docket: the Ghost of William Howard Taft
    University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository Minnesota Law Review 2006 The uprS eme Court and Its Shrinking Docket: The Ghost of William Howard Taft Kenneth W. Starr Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Starr, Kenneth W., "The uS preme Court and Its Shrinking Docket: The Ghost of William Howard Taft" (2006). Minnesota Law Review. 32. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/32 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Minnesota Law Review collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARR_3FMT 05/17/2006 09:15:32 AM Essay The Supreme Court and Its Shrinking Docket: The Ghost of William Howard Taft Kenneth W. Starr† William Howard Taft genially served as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States.1 His career was of breathtaking variety. Younger even than current Solicitor General Paul Clement, the buoyant Solicitor General Taft delivered “speech” after “speech” in the Supreme Court in the late nineteenth cen- tury. Little did he suspect, one might safely surmise, that one day—after an intervening tour of duty as President of the United States—he would occupy the center chair itself and lis- ten to his successors (many times removed) delivering their “speeches” to the Court in the old English style. In those hal- cyon, or at least less hurried, days, lawyers were allowed abun- dant time to present their case, educate the Justices, and per- haps even persuade the Court by the force of oral advocacy.2 Those were also the days when the Court was duty-bound to decide the lion’s share of the cases that came before it.3 The † Dean, Pepperdine University School of Law.
    [Show full text]
  • 15 It Is Interesting to Note That the First Circuit Has Been Admired for Its
    15 It is interesting to note that the first circuit has been admired for its amazing scarcity of dissents, due in no small part to Judge Breyer's ability to encourage people to empathize with each other and to teach people with disparate views to find new ways to agree. I am confident that it is this ability that has gained him the back- ing of liberals and conservatives alike, not because he is a centrist or a moderate, which may prove to be inaccurate, but because he has an enormous intellectual honesty and because he is fair. Colleagues, litigants, students, and clerks uniformly agree that Judge Breyer never wraps his ego into an issue, he never elevates politics over principle, and he has earned his reputation as a skilled jurist by being openminded and sensitive to detail. So I am confident, Mr. Chairman, that the committee will overwhelmingly agree, and I could not more strongly recommend Judge Stephen Breyer for your confirmation. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. Now we will hear from a distinguished member of this commit- tee, Senator Feinstein. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Senator FEINSTEIN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. As one of the newer members on this committee, it, indeed, has been a great, I think, and unique experi- ence to sit on my first confirmation to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and now to go through these hearings for Judge Stephen Breyer.
    [Show full text]
  • The Court in the World Justice Stephen Breyer16
    The Court in the World Justice Stephen Breyer16 et me start by saying that I am not an expert on international law, and I Lam not an expert on the law of other countries. But I have spent a certain amount of time working as a judge in our courts, and I will speak from my point of view as a justice on our Supreme Court. I want to explain to people how the work has changed in what some call—it is not a very happy word, but it is all right—transnational law, meaning law of other countries, inter- national law; why that has become part of my life; and how. Why look to the world? When we first went off to see courts in Europe, which our court does from time to time—we hear other people and we talk to them—I came back and I thought it was pretty interesting. I was speaking at a university and I said that we had learned a lot of useful things. A professor from Finland asked me to name one thing. I thought for a minute or two and I did come up with something. Well, that would not be so hard to answer today. The number of cases requiring us to take foreign considerations into account has increased substantially. In this piece, I want to tell you what it is like to weigh these foreign considerations and identify a few of the questions that we as justices must answer. Part of my motive for doing this is that there is a tremendous political issue, one that was best illustrated when, a few years ago, I sat on a panel with a Republican congressman from Virginia.
    [Show full text]
  • United States Supreme Court: Justice Stephen Breyer Jasmin Crowder
    Seton Hall University eRepository @ Seton Hall Law School Student Scholarship Seton Hall Law 2017 United States Supreme Court: Justice Stephen Breyer Jasmin Crowder Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Crowder, Jasmin, "United States Supreme Court: Justice Stephen Breyer" (2017). Law School Student Scholarship. 864. https://scholarship.shu.edu/student_scholarship/864 Introduction Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Stephen Gerald Breyer was bom on August 15, 1938, in San Francisco, Califomia.l His father, Irving, was legal counsel for the San Francisco Board of Education; his mother, Anne, spent most ofher time volunteering for the League of Women Voters. He is one of three Supreme Court members of the Jewish faith.2 Although the family was not strict observers ofthe Jewish faith, his parents sent Justice Breyer and his brother Charles to a religious school as a child.s The Justice has been described as displaying a formidable intellect at an early age."a He not only displayed this intellect in school but also as an Eagle Scout where he was known as the "troop brain" among his fellow Eagle Scouts when he was twelve."s The Justice attended the prestigious Lowell high school where he was a part ofthe debate team and competed against a young Jerry Brown, who would one day grow up to be the Govemor of Califomia."6 His debate coach said that "Breyer would do copious research on debate topics while other kids were out doing things like stealing hubcaps."T It is clear that at a young age Justice Breyer displayed great acumen graduating high school with one B and the rest straight A's and the distinction "most likely to succeed" in 1955."E I Biography.comEditors, Stephen Breyer Biograplry (Accessed Dec.
    [Show full text]
  • Judge Amy Coney Barrett: Her Jurisprudence and Potential Impact on the Supreme Court
    Judge Amy Coney Barrett: Her Jurisprudence and Potential Impact on the Supreme Court October 6, 2020 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R46562 SUMMARY R46562 Judge Amy Coney Barrett: Her Jurisprudence October 6, 2020 and Potential Impact on the Supreme Court Valerie C. Brannon, On September 26, 2020, President Donald J. Trump announced the nomination of Judge Amy Coordinator Coney Barrett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to the Supreme Court of the Legislative Attorney United States to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18, 2020. Judge Barrett has been a judge on the Seventh Circuit since November 2017, having Michael John Garcia, been nominated by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate earlier that year. The nominee Coordinator earned her law degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1997, and clerked for Judge Laurence H. Section Research Manager Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. From 2002 until her appointment to the Seventh Circuit in 2017, Judge Barrett was a law professor at Notre Dame Law School, and she remains part of the law school faculty. Her Caitlain Devereaux Lewis, scholarship has focused on topics such as theories of constitutional interpretation, stare decisis, Coordinator and statutory interpretation. If confirmed, Judge Barrett would be the fifth woman to serve as a Section Research Manager Supreme Court Justice. During Judge Barrett’s September 26 Supreme Court nomination ceremony, she paid tribute to both Justice Ginsburg and her former mentor, Justice Scalia.
    [Show full text]
  • The Justice Stephen Breyer Lecture Series on International Law 2014-2016
    The Justice Stephen Breyer Lecture Series on International Law 2014-2016 Justice Stephen Breyer Ahmet Üzümcü Harold Hongju Koh Ted Piccone Acknowledgments The authors wish to thank Vera Hanus and Peter Sawczak of the Organiza- tion for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Rachel Shalev of the Office of Supreme Court Justice Breyer, Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld and Nathaniel Zelinsky of Yale Law School, and Caitlyn Davis and Ashley Miller of the Brookings Institution, for their help in the research, editorial, and publica- tion processes. Support for the lecture series and this publication was generously provided by the Municipality of The Hague and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Wash- ington, D.C. Brookings is committed to quality, independence, and impact in all of its work. Activities supported by its donors reflect this commitment. The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization devoted to indepen- dent research and policy solutions. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. The con- clusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars. The Justice Stephen Breyer Lecture Series on International Law 2014-2016 ii About the Lecture Since 2012, the Brookings Foreign Policy program and The Hague Institute for Global Justice have worked closely with partners to gather experts to tackle some of the greatest challenges facing the international community at the nexus of international law, justice, and policy. This body of work seeks to address both traditional and cutting edge areas of international law where norms are still being tested and shaped.
    [Show full text]
  • Harvard Lawtoday
    4 Wilkins on a Today profession in Harvard Law rapid flux november 2005 november ‘Promises to keep’ Obama leads focus on Katrina aftermath during Celebration of Black Alumni By Dick Dahl he 2005 celebration of Black Alumni, held at HLS in mid-September, was the Dean Elena Kagan ’86 moderated the panel discussion second chapter in a story that began five between top judges from the U.S. and the U.K. T JUSTIN IDE/HARVARD UNIV. NEWS OFFICE NEWS UNIV. IDE/HARVARD JUSTIN years earlier. Sharon E. Jones ’82 remembers the excitement she and other participants felt in 2000 Judging on both sides during the first Celebration of Black Alumni: a sense that they were making history. This time, of the Atlantic said Jones, who co-chaired the 2005 celebration with Neil Brown ’78 (’79), although the excitement Comparing roles, American and was there, “there was more of a focus on ‘Where do British judges agree more than differ we go from here?’” That focus was reflected in the event’s theme: By Michael Armini “Promises to Keep: Challenges and Opportunities t’s not every day that two Supreme Court in the 21st Century.” The celebration drew more justices speak at Harvard Law School. This fall, than 1,000 participants—many of the country’s top Ithe school hosted five—assuming you take a black lawyers working in settings ranging from global view. law firms to corporations to nongovernmental At a September event that packed the Ames organizations and academia. Substantive Courtroom and an overflow room in Langdell Hall, discussions occurred in sessions U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Comings and Goings Tells the More Familiar Story
    Henry J. Abraham. Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from Washington to Clinton. New and revised edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999. xiii + 429 pp. $75.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8476-9605-5. David N. Atkinson. Leaving the Bench: Supreme Court Justices at the End. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999. xiii + 248 pp. $16.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-7006-1058-7. Reviewed by R. B. Bernstein Published on H-Law (October, 2000) Comings and Goings tells the more familiar story. This latest edition of As of this writing, the U.S. Supreme Court has a book that frst appeared in 1974 has become an had the same membership for six years -- the indispensable reference for historians of the longest such period in the Court's history in over a Court, and retains its character as a lively and century. Observers of the Court have noted, based useful examination of Supreme Court appoint‐ on the ages of the older Justices, the likelihood ments and the evolution of the appointments that the next fve years will witness one, two, or process over time. Henry J. Abraham, now James even three vacancies on the Court. The closely-di‐ Hart Professor of Government and Foreign Af‐ vided nature of the Court combines with the ap‐ fairs, Emeritus, at the University of Virginia, has proach of a Presidential election and a national thoroughly revised and overhauled his book, the contest for control of the Senate to give urgency to last edition of which appeared in 1992.
    [Show full text]
  • Stephen Breyer and Arthur Goldberg
    The Legacy of a Supreme Court Clerkship: Stephen Breyer and Arthur Goldberg Laura Krugman Ray* Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 83 II. ARTHUR GOLDBERG .................................................................... 85 A. A Brief Judicial Career ......................................................... 85 B. The Path to the Bench ........................................................... 87 C. On the Bench......................................................................... 90 1. Writing for the Majority .................................................. 92 2. In Concurrence ................................................................ 94 3. In Dissent ........................................................................ 97 D. Off the Bench: Later Writings ............................................ 102 E. The Departure Revisited ..................................................... 105 III. STEPHEN BREYER ....................................................................... 108 A. The Path to the Bench ......................................................... 108 B. The Clerkship ...................................................................... 110 C. Reading the Constitution .................................................... 114 D. The Opinions: The Problem Solver ................................... 116 E. Breyer and Goldberg: Common Ground ........................... 130 IV. CONCLUSION .............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Legislative History: the Philosophies of Justices Scalia and Breyer and the Use of Legislative History by the Wisconsin State Courts, 80 Marq
    Marquette Law Review Volume 80 Article 6 Issue 1 Fall 1996 Legislative History: The hiP losophies of Justices Scalia and Breyer and the Use of Legislative History by the Wisconsin State Courts Kenneth R. Dortzbach Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr Part of the Law Commons Repository Citation Kenneth R. Dortzbach, Legislative History: The Philosophies of Justices Scalia and Breyer and the Use of Legislative History by the Wisconsin State Courts, 80 Marq. L. Rev. 161 (1996). Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/mulr/vol80/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marquette Law Review by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LEGISLATIVE HISTORY: THE PHILOSOPHIES OF JUSTICES SCALIA AND BREYER AND THE USE OF LEGISLATIVE HISTORY BY THE WISCONSIN STATE COURTS KENNETH R. DORTZBACH* I. Introduction ................................... 161 II. Legislative History and the Supreme Court ........... 164 A. Modem Abuse of Legislative History ............. 165 B. Problems with Ignoring Legislative History ........ 168 III. The Supreme Court Today ........................ 169 A. Justice Breyer's Views ........................ 169 B. Justice Scalia's Views ......................... 182 IV. The Formalist Argument for Textualism .............. 193 V. The Analogy Between the Interpretation of Statutes and Contracts ..................................... 198 VI. Wisconsin State Courts ........................... 201 VII. Other State Courts .............................. 219 VIII. Conclusion .................................... 222 I. INTRODUCrION The validity of the use of legislative history has been debated for a number of years, but never has it received the high level of attention it does today.
    [Show full text]