With Justice Breyer retiring, who speaks for civics now?

Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring at the age of 83 after 27 years on the U.S. Supreme Court. He is part of the Court’s three-justice liberal wing (that balance won’t change, as his judicial philosophy will be shared by his replacement). He leaves the Court as a symbol of collegiality, the quintessential nice guy, sounding more like the Harvard Law School professor he used to be than one of the nine most influential people in America. Breyer’s former law clerks attribute his judicial philosophy to one guiding light: How can the law help people?

Pragmatic approach

Breyer’s opinions and speeches are marked by their pragmatism. The Supreme Court recently had to resolve a split in authority regarding whether state overtime and meal break laws covered employees working on oil platforms on the federal outer continental shelf. The liberal U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, covering the California Coast, said it did. The more conservative 5th Circuit, with jurisdiction over the Gulf of Mexico, said it did not. Breyer’s question during oral argument was whether more people were working on platforms in the Gulf or the Pacific. Turns out, 90% of the workers are in the Gulf, and Breyer followed the more conservative 5th Circuit rule.