U.S. Supreme Court
Retired Justice Breyer defends former colleagues on Supreme Court amid shadow docket scrutiny
Retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer speaks during an event at the Library of Congress for the 2022 Supreme Court Fellows Program in February. (Photo by Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer recently defended his former colleagues on the high court and said he doesn’t think that any justice is pushing for a particular political agenda.
Speaking Tuesday at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Breyer said public criticism of the Supreme Court is misplaced. The high court has come under increased scrutiny over how it handles cases on its emergency docket, according to a story by Bloomberg Law.
“I do not think there’s some kind of plot involved within the court to get this or that decided,” Breyer said.
Breyer, who has taught at Harvard Law School since his retirement in 2022, also said he did not think that his colleagues were serving to “carry out some political agenda.”
“They are more conservative, perhaps, politically than I was,” Breyer added, according to Bloomberg Law. “I mean, I grew up in San Francisco.”
Breyer also warned against calls for the Supreme Court to more fully explain its emergency docket rulings, explaining that doing so could lock justices into early positions before the factual record is fully developed.
“Once you’ve written, you are wedded—not a hundred percent, but pretty much,” Breyer said. “And you haven’t heard the arguments fully and there hasn’t been the full briefing. And so let’s not go too far too fast in giving reasons.”
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