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Stephen Breyer

  • At Harvard, Breyer Muses on End of Life Tenure for Supreme Court Justices

    October 26, 2022

    Justice Stephen Breyer’s time on the Supreme Court may have come to an end after 28 years — he resigned at the height of his…

  • A panel with Justices Breyer and Shah and Professor Intasar Rabb

    Reflections on serving in the judiciary

    October 25, 2022

    In a talk moderated by HLS Professor Intisar Rabb, Ret. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer ‘64 and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Supreme Court of Pakistan, reflect on serving in the judiciary.

  • Justice Stephen Breyer Suggests Marriage Equality Is Still Safe After Abortion Decision

    October 20, 2022

    Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that marriage equality is safe, despite the high court’s recent overturn of the constitutional right to an…

  • Justice Elena Kagan, in Dissent

    October 4, 2022

    A dissent by Justice Elena Kagan, J.D. ’86, in June illustrated why she won acclaim as a writer when she began to publish opinions after…

  • Breyer offers advice on being on losing side

    September 13, 2022

    The Harvard Gazette – Some have speculated former Associate Justice Stephen Breyer decided to retire this year because he had grown weary and frustrated being…

  • Stephen Breyer seated in a light colored chair in front of a crimson backdrop.

    Breyer offers advice on being on losing side

    September 12, 2022

    In his first Harvard event since retiring from the Supreme Court in June, former Associate Justice Stephen Breyer spoke to incoming Harvard Law students about his time on the court, the job that most shaped his career as a jurist, and why his questions at oral argument were so famously idiosyncratic.

  • Stephen Breyer seated in a red armchair

    Justice Stephen Breyer returns to Harvard Law School

    July 2, 2022

    Retired United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer ’64 is returning to Harvard Law School, where he will teach seminars and reading groups, write, and produce scholarship.

  • Illustration of a group of people standing like columns with their hands up supporting the top of the U.S. Supreme Court building

    A Position of Authority

    January 31, 2022

    In his book “The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics,” Justice Stephen Breyer explored how the Court can continue to maintain its vital role as a check on the rest of the government.

  • Stephen Breyer

    Breyer retires

    January 28, 2022

    Harvard Law Today offers a look back at Justice Stephen Breyer's career and his legacy, and his lifelong connection to Harvard Law School.

  • The Roberts Court, April 23, 2021

    Pragmatic Justice

    January 27, 2022

    Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer ’64, who focused on the consequences of his judicial decisions, has announced that he will step down after more than a quarter century on the Court.

  • Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer Announces His Retirement At The White House

    On the Court, Breyer had a ‘deeply thoughtful, learned, humane, and pragmatic approach’

    January 27, 2022

    In the wake of the news that Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer ’64 will retire at the end of the current term, Harvard Law School faculty members offer their thoughts on his tenure, legacy, and how the nation’s highest court could change after his departure.

  • Stephen Breyer

    Justice Stephen Breyer — a passionate pragmatist

    January 27, 2022

    Richard Lazarus ’79, a Supreme Court advocate and the Howard and Katherine Aibel Professor of Law, reflects on Justice Breyer's "striking pragmatism" — and passion — during his 28 years on the Court.

  • Justice Stephen G. Breyer sitting in a chair in front of a crimson background

    Breyer cautions against the ‘peril of politics’

    April 7, 2021

    To retain the public’s trust, Justice Breyer argued, changes should come not from political reform, but in recommitment to ideals within the Court itself and in the American people.

  • Taking Ames

    March 17, 2021

    On March 10, two teams of HLS students faced off for the final round of the Ames Moot Court Competition. For the first time in its more than 100-year-old history, the competition was conducted virtually, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

  • 1982 Sandra Day O’Connor Ames on the bench

    Supreme Viewing: A Deep Bench

    January 30, 2019

    Although arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court are not video-recorded, you can watch many of its justices questioning oralists and presiding over cases—within the State of Ames. Visit Harvard Law School’s archive of video recordings of the final rounds of the Ames Moot Court Competition.

  • All rise! At HLS, a conversation with six Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court

    All rise!

    October 26, 2017

    The opening event of Harvard Law School’s Bicentennial summit was one for the history books. Six Supreme Court justices joined Dean John F. Manning ’85 to share memories and a few priceless anecdotes.

  • Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Stephen Breyer at Harvard.

    For Supreme Court justices, faith in law

    June 9, 2017

    The mood was festive, rather than disputatious, on Friday evening as Supreme Court Associate Justices Stephen G. Breyer, J.D. ’64, and Neil M. Gorsuch, J.D. ’91, sat down to discuss “the rule of law,” capping off a Harvard Marshall Forum dinner in celebration of the 70th anniversary of the trans-Atlantic scholarship.

  • Harvard Law School: 2016 in review

    December 22, 2016

    A look back at 2016, highlights of the people who visited, events that took place and everyday life at Harvard Law School.