Stephen Breyer

"Today, Justice Breyer announces his intention to step down from active service after four decades . . . on the federal bench and 28 years on the United States Supreme Court. His legacy includes his work as a leading scholar and jurist in administrative law [and] his stature as a beacon of wisdom on our Constitution and what it means. . . . He’s written landmark opinions on topics ranging from reproductive rights to healthcare, to voting rights, to patent laws, to laws protecting our environment, and the laws that protect our religious practices. His opinions are practical, sensible, and nuanced. . . . Justice Breyer’s law clerks and his colleagues . . . describe him and his work ethic - his desire to learn more, his kindness to those around him, and his optimism for the promise of our country. . . . Justice Breyer has been everything his country could have asked of him."

"[S]omething I enjoy is talking to [all kinds of students]. And theyll . . . ask me . . . "What is it you find particularly meaningful about your job?" . . . [W]hat I say to them is: Look, I sit there on the bench, and after we hear lots of cases [it becomes apparent that this] is a complicated country; there are more than 330 million people. And my mother used to say, "Its every race. Its every religion." And she would emphasize this: "And its every point of view possible." . . . [I]ts a kind of miracle when you sit there and see all of those people in front of you - people that are so different in what they think. And yet, theyve decided to help solve their major differences under law. And when the students [I speak to] get too cynical, I say, "Go look at what happens in countries that dont do that."

"I take this around at my job. (Holds up a copy of the US Constitution.) People have come to accept this Constitution, and theyve come to accept the importance of a rule of law. And [I] say: Look, of course people dont agree, but we have a country that is based on human rights, democracy, and so forth. . . . Ill tell you what Lincoln thought, what Washington thought, and what people today still think: Its an experiment. . . . Its an experiment thats still going on. You know who will see whether that experiment works? Its you, my friend. . . . Its that next generation, and the one after that - my grandchildren and their children. Theyll determine whether the experiment still works. And, of course, I am an optimist. . . . Im pretty sure it will."