Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer came to Vanderbilt Law School on Nov. 16 to help demystify the workings of the Supreme Court and talk about themes in his newly released book, Making Our Democracy Work, A Judge’s View.
Breyer has been a Supreme Court associate justice since 1994. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton. Before joining the Supreme Court, he held a seat on the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, starting in 1980. Breyer was special assistant to the U.S. assistant attorney general for antitrust and was assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate special prosecution force in 1973. He was a law professor at Harvard Law School starting in 1967, specializing in administrative law, and wrote several influential textbooks that are still used today. Breyer also clerked for Supreme Court associate justice Arthur Goldberg in 1964.
Making Our Democracy Work, A Judge’s View is Breyer’s second major book. In his 2005 book, Active Liberty, Breyer made his first attempt to lay out his views on legal theory, arguing that the judiciary should seek to resolve issues to encourage popular participation in governmental decisions.
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