Stephen Breyer

Stephen G. Breyer ( born August 15, 1938 in San Francisco, California ) is an American lawyer and since 1994 a judge at the Supreme Court of the United States ( Supreme Court ). Considered together with the judges Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor as part of the left ( "liberal" ) wing on the Court.

Career

Breyer came to San Francisco as a child of Jewish parents of the middle class to the world. He attended Lowell High School and then studied at Stanford University and at Magdalen College, Oxford University and was graduated with the degree of BA (Bachelor of Arts). At Harvard, he received his LLB ( Bachelor of Laws ).

In 1964, he served as clerk (law ​​clerk ) at the Supreme Court of the United States for Judge Arthur Goldberg. He then worked in administration as special assistant to the Attorney General for Competition Law, as an assistant special prosecutor in the Watergate scandal and as legal counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Senate.

1967 Breyer married Joanna Hare, with whom he has three children. From 1967 to 1994 he was a professor at Harvard Law School from 1977 to 1980 was a professor at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard, and Visiting Professor at the Law College of Sydney and the University of Rome. At Harvard, Breyer was known as a leading expert in administrative law.

1980 to 1994 he served as a judge at the Federal Court of Appeals for the 1st Judicial District, which he also presided from 1990 to 1994. As a member of the United States Sentencing Commission, he was involved from 1985 to 1989 instrumental in the development of sentencing guidelines that should serve to unify the penalties imposed in criminal cases.

In 1994 he was nominated President Bill Clinton as the successor to Harry Blackmun as a judge at the Supreme Court of the United States. The U.S. Senate confirmed Breyer with 87:9 votes in office. As a result, Breyer was up to the confirmation of Judge John Roberts in 2005 amt youngest judge at the Supreme Court

Court

Breyer is considered as a pragmatic constitutionalist who is more interested in the continuity and coherence of law as to dogmatic rules. For many years he frequently as his fellow judges David Souter agreed - until his resignation in August 2009 - and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who were wing of the Court in this constellation together with John Paul Stevens as the left ( in U.S. parlance, " liberal ").

He is always there for a constitutional right to abortion - Roe v. Wade since Leitentscheid (1973 ) one of the hottest iron of U.S. policy - occurred. Also, he is an advocate of controversial taking into account also of international law and foreign precedents. In contrast, Breyer is wary of the fundamental rights limitation of the powers of law enforcement agencies, and advocates a restrained judicial review of legislative restrictions on freedom of expression under the First Amendment.

Others

In October 2011, Breyer was appointed to the jury for the award of the Pritzker Prize, the world's most prestigious award in the field of architecture.