Reading the Constitution with Justice Stephen G. Breyer (John Donvan; Open to Debate: Think Twice podcast)

As an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court for almost three decades, Stephen Breyer was no stranger to hearing arguments for cases, whether landmark, federal, or otherwise, that reached the highest court in the land. As an organization focused on the merits of debate, we wanted to know how the Justices engaged in this practice behind closed doors — and how their debates around interpreting the Constitution helped shape the Court’s decisions. 

In this episode, our moderator-in-chief, John Donvan, and Chief Content Officer, Lia Matthow, interview Justice Breyer, discuss his book Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, not Textualism, and talk with him how he used this philosophy to guide his deliberations, the landmark cases that showcased it, and why he thinks jurists should choose this philosophy as a means of interpreting the Constitution.

Interview with ad-free video:  

https://opentodebate.org/debate/think-twice-reading-the-constitution-with-justice-stephen-breyer/

YouTube version below may contain ads:

Justice Breyer: You Don’t Want A Judge To Be Influenced By Popular Opinion

Stephen asks Retired Justice Stephen Breyer to comment on the influence of politics and public opinion on the rulings made by the U.S. Supreme Court, a topic that Breyer covers in his latest book, “Reading The Constitution,” which is available everywhere now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6H8jgBg2Bc

What Stephen Breyer’s new book says about key Supreme Court cases - The Washington Post

In his dissent in Bruen, Breyer argued that the majority's decision would make it more difficult for state lawmakers to take steps to limit the dangers of gun violence. The Second Amendment allows states to "take account of the serious problems posed by gun violence," wrote Breyer, who was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan... 

"How can a jurisprudential philosophy grounded in that Constitution ignore these practical realities and the deadly consequences of striking down the efforts of democratically elected bodies to address those realities?" Breyer writes. "I do not think it can."...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/18/stephen-breyer-book-supreme-court/

 

Justice Breyer, Off the Bench, Sounds an Alarm Over the Supreme Court’s Direction - The New York Times

There are three large problems with originalism, he wrote in the book. "First, it requires judges to be historians — a role for which they may not be qualified — constantly searching historical sources for the 'answer' where there often isn't one there," he wrote. 

"Second, it leaves no room for judges to consider the practical consequences of the constitutional rules they propound. And third, it does not take into account the ways in which our values as a society evolve over time as we learn from the mistakes of our past."…

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/us/breyer-supreme-court-interview.html

Forgotten Founder (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

Guests: Margaret Downey and Gary Berton. We talk about the need to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Breyer with a proponent of state/church separation. After hearing Dan Barker's tribute to Thomas Paine, "The World Is My Country," we talk with two Paine experts: Margaret Downey, president of the new Thomas Paine Memorial Association, and Gary Berton, president of the Thomas Paine National Historical Association, about the drive to erect a statue to the "forgotten founder" in Washington DC.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/radio/show-items/item/40360-freethought-radio-january-27-2022

'This is not justice': supreme court liberals slam Trump's federal executions

..."There can be no 'justice on the fly' in matters of life and death," Sotomayor added. "Yet the court has allowed the United States to execute 13 people in six months under a statutory scheme and regulatory protocol that have received inadequate scrutiny, without resolving the serious claims the condemned individuals raised."...

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/jan/16/supreme-court-sotomayor-breyer-trump-federal-executions