Stephen Breyer

Associate Justice Stephen Breyer was appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States by President Clinton in 1994, and has served in this role for over twenty years as guardian of the Constitution and American democracy. He advocates an organic reading of the Constitution that aims at interpreting the spirit, not just the letter of the law. In doing so, Justice Breyer believes judges should not hesitate to look beyond the boundaries of their own field and national legislation. He elaborated his influential views on the importance of the law in a democratic society and the role of the Supreme Court in Active Liberty: Interpreting our Democratic Constitution (2005) and Making our Democracy Work: A Judge’s View (2010). His most recent book The Court and the World discusses the relation between international developments and American legal practice.