Quick Facts

American attorney, jurist, and professor of law Stephen Breyer. He is well-known for having been a United States Supreme Court associate justice since 1994. President Bill Clinton proposed him to succeed retiring justice Harry Blackmun. He is frequently connected to the Court’s liberal branch.

Prior to being proposed for the Supreme Court, he held a number of important roles, including assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force in 1973 and special assistant to the United States Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust. From 1980 to 1994, he also served as a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals. American media sites claimed on January 26, 2022, that he planned to leave the Supreme Court at the end of the current term and will make a formal announcement as early as January 28. Democratic Party is his party. He has been and still is a source of inspiration for young attorneys.

How much is the net worth of Stephen Breyer?

Stephen Breyer is one of the wealthiest justices on the Supreme Court. His net worth is projected to be about $30 million. With a net worth of $6 million in 2016 and $16 million in 2017, he is one of the richest Supreme Court justices. His work as a judge and career in law are the main sources of his fortune. His career earnings and yearly pay have not yet been made public.

US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire

Liberal Stephen Breyer, a justice on the US Supreme Court, will step down from the bench later this year after serving for almost 30 years. His choice guarantees that President Joe Biden will have the chance to propose a replacement who might in office for many years. However, the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority will not change with the departure of Justice Breyer. At the conclusion of the current Supreme Court term in June, Breyer is anticipated to retire.

While they are in control of the White House and Senate, Democrats have been urging Justice Breyer, the bench’s senior member at 83, to resign so they can fill the position with a younger person. When liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away in 2020 at the age of 87, there was a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Less than two months prior to the US presidential election, Justice Amy Coney Barrett was able to be appointed by former President Donald Trump. Justice Breyer was “upset” over the news that was leaked, according to a number of sources, because he “was not planning to announce his retirement today.”

Early Years: Which country is Stephen Breyer from?

On August 15, 1938, Stephen Breyer was given the name Stephen Gerald Breyer. He is American and is from San Francisco, California. His mother Anne A. and father Irving Gerald Breyer raised him in a Jewish family. His father was a lawyer who represented the San Francisco Board of Education in legal matters. He came from a household that was upper middle class. Breyer’s grandfather was born in Cleveland after his paternal great-grandfather immigrated to America from Romania. Additionally, he is related to Charles R. Breyer, a younger brother. He is American by birth and White American by ethnicity. He is White in color. 2021 saw the occasion of his 83rd birthday. His zodiac sign is Leo, and he practices Judaism.

He attended Lowell High School, where he received his diploma in 1955. He afterwards enrolled at Stanford University to study philosophy there. Also, He earned Phi Beta Kappa membership and the top honors at his 1959 bachelor of arts graduation. After that, he was awarded the Marshall Scholarship, which allowed him to attend Oxford’s Magdalen College and study economics, politics, and physics. He later came back to the country to enroll in Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review and earned a Bachelor of Laws with the highest possible honors in 1964. Also, He was admitted to the Harvard Law Review organization during his tenure. He served in the United States Army Reserve for 8 years, including 6 months as an active Army Strategic Intelligence officer. In 1965, he attained the rank of corporal and received an honorable discharge.

What is the Professional Career of Stephen Breyer?

After serving as associate justice Arthur Goldberg’s law clerk from 1964 to 1965 and working briefly as a fact-checker for the Warren Commission, Stephen Breyer’s legal career officially got underway. He worked for two years as the Assistant Attorney General’s special assistant in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. From 1967 through 1994, he lectured at Harvard Law School on a full-time basis. He wrote Breaking the Vicious Circle: Toward Effective Risk Regulation and Regulation and Its Reform, two publications on deregulation that had a significant impact at the time. His skepticism about copyright in the book The Uneasy Case for Copyright from the 1970s was one of Breyer’s literary works that caused the most controversy in the legal community.

In 1973, he worked on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force as an assistant special prosecutor. In addition, he worked on matters involving the federal criminal code as well as the deregulation of the aviation and trucking industries as a special counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1974 to 1975 and as the committee’s lead counsel from 1979 to 1980. He was chosen by President Carter to serve on the First Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals in 1980. After that, he was promoted to Chief Justice in 1990, taking Levin Campbell’s place. After that, he worked as a member of the United States Sentencing Commission from 1985 to 1989 and the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1990 to 1994.

More on Career

Before selecting Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the seat left vacant by Byron White in 1993, President Bill Clinton gave him some consideration. On May 17, 1994, Clinton then proposed him for appointment as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. One of his most significant contributions to the judicial system is his 2005 book Active Liberty. His second book, Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View, was released in 2010. He later violated a federal statute that forbids judges from hearing cases when they, their spouses, or their young children have a financial interest in a corporation that is at issue (this was in 2015). Approximately $33,000 worth of Johnson Controls stock was sold by his wife the day after he had already taken part in the oral argument.

His third book, The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities, was published in 2015 and explores the interaction between American and international law as well as how American cases must take the realities of a globalized world into account. Progressive groups and Democratic lawmakers want Breyer to step down after the 2020 presidential and senate elections, so that President Joe Biden could name a more youthful and liberal justice. Breyer expressed his desire to leave the bench before passing away in an August 2021 New York Times interview, and he related a conversation he had with Justice Antonin Scalia in which Scalia said he did not want his successor to “undo everything I’ve done for the previous 25 years.”

Breyer stated that protesters clamoring for his resignation are “entitled to their viewpoint” and that “I didn’t retire because I had determined on balance I wouldn’t retire” in a September 2021 interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace. He reaffirmed that he does not intend to “die on the court” and stated that he takes a number of factors into account while selecting his retirement plans. Breyer said on January 26, 2022, that he would leave the court at the conclusion of the 2021–2022 term. Additionally, he has made a guest appearance on Stephen Colbert’s TV program. He spoke on the Texas Heartbeat Act and his unwillingness to resign on the Late Show in September 2021. In September 2021, he also made an appearance on Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Awards, Honors, and Achievements

• Elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2004
• Honored with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award by the Boy Scouts of America in 2007
• Named to the chair of the Pritzker Architecture Prize jury, succeeding the previous chair Glenn Murcutt in 2018

Stephen Breyer Books

• “The Federal Sentencing Guidelines and Key Compromises on Which They Rest”
• Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution. New York: Vintage Books
• Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View. New York: A. A. Knopf
• The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities. New York: Penguin Random House
• The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press

With whom is Stephen Breyer married to?

Stephen Breyer is a husband and father. In 1967, he was married to his stunning bride, Joanna. In Suffolk, England, a local church served as the venue for their nuptials. Joanna is the younger daughter of John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham, and a member of the British aristocracy by profession. Michael, Nell, and Chloe, an Episcopal priest, are their three grown children. Straight is the way he identifies sexually. The couple is currently content with their lives.

Body Measurement: What is Stephen Breyer’s height?

Stephen Breyer has a charming appearance and a thin build. He is the ideal height for his body weight. Also, His hair is salt and pepper in color, and he has some bald spots. His eyes are a light brown color. His other body size has not yet been revealed. He has a generally sound body.

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