I'm back in Austin following the ABA Annual Meeting. Justice Stephen Breyer spoke on Saturday afternoon. Tony Mauro, Legal Times' Supreme Court correspondent, has "In Address to ABA, Justice Breyer Reflects on 'Difficult Year," at Law.com.
As unhappy as he was about being on the losing side in so many cases last term, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said Saturday his faith in the legal system and the rule of law is undiminished.
"I had a difficult year," Breyer said before the opening assembly of the American Bar Association's annual meeting in San Francisco. "I was in dissent quite a lot, and I wasn't happy." With Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito Jr. on the Court, conservatives won almost all the 5-4 opinions last term, leaving Breyer often in the minority.
Breyer noted that he wrote an impassioned 77-page dissent in June in last term's school race cases, criticizing the majority for taking a wrong turn on civil rights. After a summer of reflection, Breyer told the association, "I wish I had won," but he said he also thinks, "not a bad system."
The nation is one of "300 million people and 600 million opinions," Breyer added, and his can't be in the majority all the time. What makes him still proud of the system is that disputes over race and other deeply emotional issues are worked out "in the courts, not in the streets."
Breyer made his personal observations to underscore his charge to the lawyers to spread the word about judicial independence and the rule of law. Even when the Court makes unpopular decisions, Breyer said, the nation abides by them. Even in the Florida 2000 election case of Bush v. Gore, Breyer noted, "there were no paratroopers, no rocks. ... People accepted it."
But the story of the American legal system needs to be told and retold, Breyer said, because it "floats on the sea of public acceptance." He said he worries that the busy general public does not see that it has a direct stake in the preservation of an independent judiciary, which contributes to economic stability and the protection of minorities. The message needs to be transmitted to the next generation, Breyer said.
Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle also covered the speech in, "Breyer: Public support key to judiciary future."
The future of America's judiciary as an independent institution depends on the public's willingness to support courts that issue controversial or even unpopular rulings, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told the American Bar Association on Saturday evening.
"This constitutional system floats on a sea of public acceptance,'' the San Francisco native, a 1994 appointee of President Bill Clinton, said in a keynote speech in Davies Symphony Hall at the annual meeting of the 413,000-member lawyers' organization.
While judges must disregard public opinion in their rulings, Breyer said, "if the public in a democracy does not support that institution, then you don't have that independent judiciary.''
And:
When the Supreme Court ruled in the 1830s that the state of Georgia had no power to seize land from the Cherokees, Breyer noted, President Andrew Jackson defied the ruling and ordered in federal troops, ultimately sending the Indians on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma. But when the court unanimously ordered Arkansas in 1958 to allow black children to attend all-white schools in Little Rock, President Dwight Eisenhower sent in paratroopers who escorted the youngsters past hostile crowds into the schoolhouse.
"That was a great day for law,'' Breyer said.
Also on Saturday, the State Bar of Texas hosted a reception. Current President Gib Walton and Immediate Past President Martha Dickie were both present. The ABA Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section's Thurgood Marshall dinner honored Judge Matthew J. Perry of South Carolina.
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