Free Republic

Imagine being not yet seventy years old and being told, not exactly politely, that in the interest of liberalism you have to be put out to pasture. When that message went out to Justice Stephen Breyer in 2021, he was at least over eighty when the leftists told him his time was up on the Supreme Court. With Justice Sonia Sotomayor, despite being over ten years younger than Breyer when he retired, Josh Barro writing for The Atlantic announced that it was time for her to withdraw in the interest of liberalism as you can see in "Sonia Sotomayor Should...

Former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer criticized his colleagues on the high court over their interpretation of the Constitution. The former justice, who retired in 2022, is set to release a book titled Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, laying out an argument critiquing the methods used by many Republican-appointed justices to interpret the Constitution. “Recently, major cases have come before the court while several new justices have spent only two or three years at the court,” Breyer said in the book, according to the New York Times. “Major changes take time, and there are many years...

Liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is under pressure from fellow liberals to retire amid growing fears she might enable a Republican president to appoint a conservative successor. CNN commentator Josh Barrow became the latest to demand the 69-year-old step down lest she follow in the footsteps liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg who died while serving at 87 in 2020. That death allowed then-president Donald Trump to cement the court's conservative majority with the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, and some liberals are determined it will not happen again. 'I'm not saying I think Justice Sotomayor is on death's door,' Barrow...

Walgreens will pay the city of San Francisco nearly $230 million, after a federal judge found the company liable for contributing to the city’s opioid epidemic. The settlement, which will be paid out over 14 years, will go towards addressing the city’s opioid crisis, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced on Wednesday. “Opioids have wreaked havoc across our nation leading to immense suffering and untold damage,” he said in a statement. “Cities like San Francisco have shouldered much of the burden of the opioid epidemic. “ “Following our win against Walgreens during the liability phase, this historic agreement ensures...

Former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke out last week to support Justice Clarence Thomas. At an event for the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals, Breyer defended Thomas as a "man of integrity," casting doubt on allegations that Thomas is guilty of ethical — and even legal — transgressions. "As far as I’m concerned, I sat next to him on the bench for 28 years. I like him. He’s a friend of mine. I’ve never seen him do anything underhanded or say anything underhanded," Breyer said, according to Bloomberg Law. "My personal point of view is he’s a man...

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said Walgreens “substantially contributed” to one of the nation’s deadliest public health crises by not stopping suspicious orders and dispensing drugs that were diverted for illicit use, causing a public nuisance in a major city that is among the hardest hit by addiction and overdoses. Walgreens, responsible for shipping nearly 1 out of every 5 oxycodone and hydrocodone pills distributed nationwide during the height of the opioid crisis, was the only drug company sued by San Francisco that did not settle, going to trial in April. “Walgreens has regulatory obligations to take reasonable steps to...

Liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has announced that he will step down from the high court, effective Thursday at noon. Breyer, who notified President Joe Biden back in January that he would retire at the end of the current term, released a letter on Wednesday stating that he will officially retire after the Court issues its final opinions of the term on Thursday. “The Court has announced that tomorrow, beginning at 10 a.m., it will hand down all remaining opinions ready during this Term. Accordingly, my retirement from active service under the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 371(b)...

Justice Breyer has sent a letter to President Biden informing him that his retirement will be effective 24 hours from now: at noon on Thursday, June 30.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who famously refused to give the last Democratic Supreme Court nominee a Senate hearing or vote, on Thursday said he’s ready to give President Biden’s pick to the high court “a fair look.” While some conservatives are already taking shots at Biden for pledging to consider only a Black woman to replace retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, McConnell is keeping his powder dry until the nominee is known.

I had an interesting experience at the car repair shop this weekend. Nothing big; it was just due for an oil change... but I was able to include one of the services I can't usually use: the free tire rotation. (I usually buy tires one at a time, thanks to potholes and nails, but for once, I actually replaced them as a set, so they could be rotated). No such luck. I couldn't get the rotation this time, because we appear to have lost the wheel lock key. That's not such a big deal in itself; I can do without...

Once Associate Justice Stephen Breyer was successfully hounded into announcing his retirement (and we all wonder if the full story of that announcement will ever be told), Joe Biden announced that he would only be considering black females for the appointment. Mr. Biden chose a tumultuous week to announce that name – a week in which Russia invaded Ukraine, energy prices hit new records, the stock market tumbled, and the news was finally starting to circulate that indictments were finally coming on the Obama-Clinton era “Russian collusion” hoax against President Trump. When the Biden-Harris regime most needed a distraction from...

@jaketapper According to a source who has been notified about the decision, President Biden has decided to nominate to the Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

BREAKING: Biden has chosen his Supreme Court nominee, with announcement expected as soon as Friday - CNN

Ryan even testified on Brown’s behalf when she was nominated to the district court in 2012, offering his “unequivocal” endorsement of her qualifications in recommending her for the bench.“Our politics may differ, but my praise for Ketanji’s intellect, for her character, for her integrity is unequivocal,” Ryan said at her December 2012 nomination hearing. “She’s an amazing person, and I favorably recommend her consideration.” -snip- “We’re family, by marriage,” Ryan explained in the 2012 hearing. “Her brother and sister-in-law, who are my brother and sister-in-law, William and Dana Jackson, are here with us as well today.”

President Joe Biden has made his choice to replace Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, according to multiple media reports. Biden will announce today that he will nominate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to the court. If confirmed, Jackson would become the first Black woman to serve on the court. She is 51. That would make her the second-youngest justice on the current court. Justice Amy Coney Barrett turned 50 in January. She would also be the first justice since Thurgood Marshall who served as a longtime defense...

Is it time for Politico founding editor John F. Harris to don a jester's costume? A week ago we saw the spectacle of Harris recommending that Joe Biden reverse his sinking political fortunes by trash talking. And on Thursday, he took yet more silly sauce to urge Chief Justice John Roberts, despite being sixteen years younger than the retiring Stephen Breyer, follow suit by no later than this summer.

United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement last week. (Or, more accurately, his announcement was leaked by resident Joe Biden's Chief of Staff Ron Klain, months before Breyer planned to announce it himself.) Breyer is part of the Court's liberal faction, so his replacement, named by a Democrat president, is unlikely to change the outcome of cases. Even so, Biden wasted no time proclaiming that he intended to make good on a campaign promise to appoint the first Black female Supreme Court justice. The last person who should be bragging about his commitment to advancing the cause...

Thursday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) pushed back against criticism from the GOP over President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would nominate a black woman to replace outgoing-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Durbin argued on CNN’s “New Day” that both former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump announced they would nominate a woman to the Supreme Court and noted the same people upset about Biden’s plan to nominate a black woman have never voted for a black nominee.

When Stephen Breyer was 4 years old, and his father, Irving Breyer, was serving as legal counsel for the San Francisco Board of Education, the San Francisco Examiner ran a story headlined "Court Test Looms in S.F. Student Beating." "The flogging of Robert Troutfelt, a 13-year-old student at Marina Junior High School, showed every indication yesterday of becoming a 'cause celebre,' determining the status of corporal punishment in local schools," said the story. Two days before that, on March 18, 1943, the Examiner had laid out the alleged details of the case. "Upon complaint of George T. Troutfelt, indignant father...

Hold off on the official Tom Brady tributes. For now. According to Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians, Brady hasn’t yet informed the organization he’s retiring. “No, he hasn’t that we know of,” Arians told the Tampa Bay Times. “Agent [Don Yee] just told us he hasn’t made up his mind.” Brady called Buccaneers GM Jason Licht to inform him he has not made up his mind, according to the report.