Stephen Breyer
From Judgepedia
Early life
Breyer was born to Irving Gerald Breyer and Anne A. Roberts, in San Francisco, California. Breyer's father was legal counsel for the San Francisco Board of Education.[1]
Education
In 1955, Breyer graduated from Lowell High School. He debated regularly in high school debate tournaments, including against California governor Jerry Brown and future Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe.[2]
Breyer went on to receive a B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University, a B.A. from Magdalen College at the University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, and a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from Harvard Law School.
Legal career
Following a clerkship with Supreme Court Associate Justice Arthur Goldberg in 1964, Breyer became a law professor and lecturer at Harvard Law School starting in 1967. There he specialized in administrative law, writing a number of text books that remain in use today. He held other positions before being nominated for the Supreme Court, including special assistant to the United States Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, and assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force in 1973.
Judicial career
From 1980-1994, Justice Breyer served as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, including as the court's Chief Judge from 1990 to 1994. He was nominated to the Court of Appeals by President Jimmy Carter on November 13, 1980. The U.S. Senate confirmed Breyer on December 9, 1980 by an 80-10 vote, in the last days of the Carter administration. He served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States between 1990 and 1994 and the United States Sentencing Commission between 1985 and 1989.[3] On the sentencing commission, Breyer played a key role in reforming federal criminal sentencing procedures, producing the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which were formulated to increase uniformity in sentences for criminal cases.[4]
In 1993, President Clinton considered Breyer for the seat vacated by Byron White that ultimately went to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.[5] Breyer's appointment came shortly thereafter, however, following the retirement of Harry Blackmun in 1994, and Clinton nominated Breyer as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on May 17 of that year. Breyer was confirmed by the Senate in an 87 to 9 vote and took his seat August 3, 1994.
References
Portions of this article have been taken and edited from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Copyright Notice can be found here.
 |
Federal judges who have served the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit |
|---|---|
| Active judges |
Chief Judge: Lynch • Boudin • Howard • Lipez • Torruella • Vacancy |
| Senior judges | |
| Former judges |
Aldrich • Anderson • Bingham • Bownes • Breyer • Colt • Dodge • Hartigan • Johnson • Lowell • Magruder • Mahoney • McEntee • Morton • Putnam • Schofield • Souter • Wilson • Woodbury |
