How did Stephen Breyer Vote: The hidden Supreme Court is governed by late nights, courtesy votes, and the unwritten 6-vote rule! The U.S. Supreme Court’s nine justices conduct much of their business in a simple room with oak paneling and around a rectangular table. The conclusions of some of those internal considerations are made public when fully informed and openly discussed cases are handed down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Breyer
Private decisions are even more wrapped in secrecy and mystery when the justices choose whether cases merit review or when the court issues orders late at night without any publicly recorded votes or reasoning. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN on Wednesday, Justice Stephen Breyer of the Supreme Court provided additional information on the court’s internal procedures, including how it handles cases involving the death penalty and midnight orders. Breyer, the oldest and most liberal of the nine, still emphasized the significance of maintaining confidentiality during the judges’ meetings, referred to as “the conference,”
So that each of them may express themselves freely while considering cases. In the upcoming months, it is anticipated that the justices’ internal operations will be examined more closely. Documents released on Thursday by members of President Biden’s Supreme Court Commission revealed their interest in, among other things, the court’s use of emergency orders, the court’s decision-making procedure, judicial ethics, and public access to court sessions.
The Assemblage:
The nine meet in secret once a week to debate petitions that are still outstanding and to cast votes on topics that have previously been discussed. Chief Justice John Roberts establishes the tone and gets things going in a conference room next to the Chief Justice’s chambers. The room is decorated with a black marble fireplace that features a picture of Chief Justice John Marshall. The final associate justice to speak in order of seniority is Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
On CNN,”I think what happens is fairly professional
One at a time, participants go around the table. The case’s question is being discussed by the chief justice, Justice (Clarence) Thomas, and I. Everyone is allowed to express themselves whatever they like. And they do it politely and professionally. Despite some of the acrimonious accusations that ultimately appear in the justices’ written decisions, he emphasized that there are no harsh words or sniping in these sessions.
According to Stephen Breyer, it is not yet time to give up on the Supreme Court.
Judge Stephen Breyer contends that there is yet hope for the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court hears about 7,000 appeal applications from litigants who are lost in lower courts each year. They take on and settle about 60 cases during the annual session, which starts in October. Oral arguments must be scheduled and accepted for review by four out of the nine members to be approved. To decide on the current problem, however, a majority of five votes is needed. The justices only discuss a small fraction of the hundreds of petitions that are received and handled each week. This list is kept private.
Any justice may ask for their case to be included in the list for consideration after the worthy cases have been selected by the law clerks. Other than such instances, there won’t be a review. The justices have practically complete discretion over the cases they accept, and they frequently look for situations where lower courts have reached divergent conclusions in order to bring about uniformity in the law throughout the United States. Breyer’s fundamental strategies were inspired by Sandra Day O’Connor, the nation’s first female justice, who served from 1981 to 2006 and is now retired and living in Arizona.
Breyer will retire at noon on June 30, 2022
He was suggested by Democratic President Bill Clinton to fill Harry Blackmun’s vacant seat on the bench. By a vote of 87-9 on August 3, 1994, Breyer was sworn in. Breyer graduated from Stanford University in 1959 and then enrolled as a Marshall Scholar at Oxford University’s Magdalen College, where he obtained a distinction-filled bachelor’s degree in 1961. Before he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1964, he served as the Harvard Law Review’s chief editor. Breyer worked as Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg’s law student clerk.
Throughout his tenure as a government attorney, he held positions as top counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee and associate special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecutions Force. Jimmy Carter (D) appointed Breyer to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in 1980. From 1980 to 1994, he served on the bench, the latter four years as its chief justice. Two of Breyer’s most notable decisions include his dissenting opinion in Eldred v. Ashcroft, a case involving copyright law, and the majority opinion in the NLRB v. Noel Canning recess appointment case. According to Sandra O’Connor, unwritten rules are just as important as written ones. First, nobody is permitted to speak again during the conference until everyone has had an opportunity to do so.
According to Breyer, “I had the advantage of speaking last for 11 years as a junior justice, which was a rule that really favored me. Everyone agrees that you have been treated decently, though. A second regulation prohibits the trading of votes. It’s not like Congress, though. The United States Supreme Court is comprised of Justice Stephen Breyer. President Joe Biden (D) and Justice Stephen Breyer made the announcement of Breyer’s retirement at the start of the Supreme Court’s summer break in late June or early July 2022. The retirement was announced on January 26, according to NBC News.
Why does Breyer worry about a weakened Supreme Court?
Breyer’s book presents a completely different perspective of the role of the courts in a free democracy and how they gain the public trust they need to carry out that task as a counterpoint to left-leaning calls for Supreme Court reform. The judge considers President Andrew Jackson’s disobedience to an 1832 decision protecting the Cherokees’ rights to be one of his many low points (Jackson eventually sent federal troops to force the Cherokee people to relocate to Oklahoma, along with what is now known as the Trail of Tears).
Breyer’s interpretation of history raises some interesting issues. In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ultimately prevailed, and he paints that as a win over the Jim Crow South. However, the Brown judgment had little effect in the Deep South until Congress launched its campaign against segregation with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On the eve of that law’s enactment ten years after Brown, one in 85 Black students in the South attended a desegregated school. Unexpectedly, Breyer also praises Bush v. Gore ruling, or at least the results of it. Bush’s poor legal justification successfully gave George W. Bush the presidency. Breyer’s position was opposed by one of the court’s four judges.
Biography:
Stephen Breyer, full name Stephen Gerald Breyer, was a member of the United States Supreme Court as an associate justice from 1994 to 2022. (born August 15, 1938, in San Francisco, California). Breyer received bachelor’s degrees from Stanford University in 1959 and the University of Oxford in 1961, as well as a law degree from Harvard University in 1963, all thanks to a Rhodes scholarship. (1964). From 1964–1955, he served as a clerk for Justice Arthur J. Goldberg of the Supreme Court. He taught law at Harvard University from 1967 to 1994.
Breyer took a leave of absence from Harvard in 1973 during the Watergate investigation. From 1974 to 1975 and again from 1979 to 1981, Mr. Kennedy worked as the Senate Judiciary Committee’s principal attorney on matters ranging from federal criminal law to the deregulation of the airline and truck industries. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
