President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, January 27, 2022

Transcript

Good afternoon and began by recognizing both Doctor Breyer Dr Biden and from being here and I can’t tell you, this is sort of a bittersweet day for me, Justice Breyer. I go back a long way All the way back to the mid 70s when he first came on the Judiciary Committee. That’s another story. I’m here today to express the nation’s gratitude to Justice Stephen Breyer for his remarkable career of public service and it’s clear eyed commitment to making our country’s laws work for its people. And our gratitude extends to justice prayers family for being partners in his decades of public service particularly want to thank his wife, Dr Joanne Dreyer who is here today and who has stood by him for nearly six decades. Uh and with her fierce intellect, good humor and enormous heart and I thank you the country owes you as well. And Stephen briers public service started early, he served in the United States Army as a teenager And in all three branches of the federal government before he turned 40. And as he was a law clerk, as Supreme Court Justice Goldberg, a prosecutor in the Department of Justice, a member of the Watergate prosecution team. I first met Stephen Breyer when I was a senator on the judiciary committee and he started off as they were taking care of one of the subcommittees for teddy but then became chief counsel during his tenure as as ted’s chairman chairmanship of the Judiciary committee beyond his intellect and hard work and legal insight. He was famous for biking across Washington virtually every day for a face to face meeting with a Republican chief counsel, the ranking Republican council. And over breakfast they discuss what would they do for the country together? Or as in those days we try to do things together. They that spirit stuck with me when I took over the judiciary committee as chair after Senator Kennedy’s tenure. And it was my honor To vote to confirm justice prior to serve in the United States Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals 1st in 1980. And then 14 years later in 1994, I got to preside as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee over a Supreme Court confirmation hearings. We were joking with one another when he walked in, did we ever think that he would have served decades on the court and I’d be president of the United States and the day he came in and retired. I and he looked at it anyway, he said, I’m joking, but I was proud and grateful to be there at the start of this distinguished career in the Supreme Court and I’m very proud to be here today on his announcement of his retirement. You know, during his confirmation hearing is way back in 1994, nominee Stephen Breyer said, quote, the law must work for the people he explained to us his faith that are complex legal system has a single purpose tell people who make up our country. It was a different time of course, but his brilliance, his values, his scholarship or why Judge Breyer became justice Breyer by an overwhelming bipartisan vote at the time. Today, justice prior announces his intention to step down from active service after four decades, four decades on the federal bench in 28 years on the United States Supreme Court. His legacy includes his work as a leading scholar and jurist and administrative law, bringing his brilliance to bear to make government run more efficiently and effectively. It includes his stature as a beacon of wisdom on our constitution and what it means And through it all justice priorities worked tirelessly to give faith to the notion that the law exists to help the people. Everyone knows that Stephen Breyer has been an exemplary justice fair to the parties before him, courteous to his colleagues, careful in his reasoning, he’s written landmark opinions on topics ranging from reproductive rights, to healthcare, to voting rights, to patent law, the laws protecting our environment and the laws that protect our religious practices. His opinions are practical, sensible and nuanced reflects his belief that the job of a judge is not to lay down a rule but to get it right to get it right. Justice briars, law clerks and his colleagues as many of the press here. No described him and his work ethic, his desire to learn more, His kindness to those around him and his optimism for the promise of our country and he has patiently sought common ground and build consensus, seeking to bring the court together. I think he’s a model public servant in a time of great division in this country. Justice Breyer has been everything his country could have asked of him and he’s appeared before when he appeared before the judicial community almost three decades ago. We all had high hopes for the mark. He would leave on the history, the law and the constitution and he’s exceeded those hopes in every possible way. Today is his day, our day to commend his his life of service and his life on the court. But let me say a few words about the critically important work of selecting his successor, choosing someone to sit in the Supreme Court. I believe it is one of the most serious constitutional responsibility of president. Has our process is going to be rigorous. I will select the nominee worthy of justice, priors, legacy of excellence and decency. Well, I’ve been studying candidates, backgrounds and writings. I’ve made no decision except one person. I will nominate will be some of the extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity and that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue in my view, I made that commitment during the campaign for president and I will keep that. I will fully do what I said. I do. I will fulfill my duty to select the justice, not only with the Senate’s consent, but with his advice, you’ve heard me say another nomination processes that the Constitution says seek the advice and consent, but the advice as well on the Senate, I’m gonna invite senators from both parties to offer their ideas and points of view. I also consult with leading scholars and lawyers and I’m fortunate to have advised me in this selection process. Vice President Kamala Harris, she’s an exceptional lawyer, former Attorney general of the state of California, a former member of the Senate Judiciary. I will listen carefully to all the advice I’m given and I will study the records and former cases carefully. I’ll meet with the potential nominees and it is my intention. My intention to announce my decision before the end of February. I have made no choice at this point. Once I select a nominee, I’ll ask the Senate to move promptly on my choice. In the end I will nominate a historic candidate. Someone who’s worthy of justice briars legacy and someone who like Justice Breyer will provide incredible service on the United States Supreme Court Justice Prior on behalf of all the American people. I want to thank you and your family and your family for your tremendous service to our nation. I’m going to yield the floor to you. Mr. Justice shaking right. Thank you. Thank you Mr. President terribly nice and believe me, I hold it right here. It’s wonderful and I thought about what I might say to you and I’d like to say something I enjoy is talking to high school students, Grammar school students, college students, even law school students. And, and they’ll come around and ask me what what what is the, what is it you find particularly meaningful about your job? What sort of gives you a thrill? And that’s not such a tough question for me to answer. Uh, it’s the same thing. They won almost up today. I don’t know how many, but, but the, the, what what I say to them is, look, I sit there on the bench and after we hear lots of cases and after a while, the impression it takes a while, I have to admit that the impression you get is, you know, as you well know this is a complicated country. There was more than 330 million people. And my mother used to say it’s every race, it’s every religion and she would emphasize this and it’s every point of view possible. And uh, it’s a kind of miracle when you sit there and see all those people in front of you, people that are so different in what they think. And yet they’ve decided to help solve their major differences under law. And when the students get too cynical, I say, go, go look at what happens in countries that don’t do that. And that’s there, I can’t take this around in my job. People have come to accept this constitution and they’ve come to accept the importance of the rule of law. And I want to make another point to them. I want to say, look, of course, people don’t agree. But we have a country that is based on human rights, democracy and so forth. But I’ll tell you what Lincoln thought, what Washington thought and what people today still think it’s an experiment. It’s an experiment. That’s what they said. And Joanna paid each of our grandchildren a certain amount of money to memorize the Gettysburg address. And the reason the reason that that that what we want them to pick up there and what I want those students to pick up. If I can remember the first two lines is that for four score And seven years ago, our fathers brought up, uh, created upon this, uh, here a new country, a country that was dedicated uh, to uh, liberty. And the proposition that all men are created equal, conceived in liberty. Those are his words and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. He meant, and we are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. See those are the words I want to see an experiment. And that’s what he thought. It’s an experiment. And I found some letters that George Washington wrote, where he said the same thing. It’s an experiment. That experiment existed then because even the liberals in europe. you know, they’re looking over here and they say the great idea in principle, but it’ll never work. But we’ll show them. It does. That’s what Washington and that’s what Lincoln thought and that’s what people still think today. And I say well I want you and I’m talking to the students now. I said I want you to pick justice up. It’s an experiment that’s still going on. And I’ll tell you something, you know, who will see whether that experiment works? It’s you, my friend, it’s you Mr. high school students. It’s you Mr. college student. It’s you Mr. law school students. It’s us, but it’s you, it’s that next generation. And the one after that my grandchildren and their Children, they will determine whether the experiment still works. And of course I am an optimist. And I’m pretty sure it will. Does it surprise you that that’s the thought that comes into my mind today? I don’t but thank you, thank you doctor. I don’t know that you’ve ever been to the white house in the Lincoln bedroom. I invite both of you to come and stay. The Lincoln bedroom has against the wall between the windows looking out a handwritten copy of the Gettysburg address written by Lincoln in that bedroom, allegedly as I said, the sitting room. And so you gotta come and see it. And even if you can’t come and say bring your grandchildren. So they can see it as well, thank you all so very, very much for being here. And I’m not gonna take any questions, but you think it’s inappropriate to take questions with the justice here, He’s still sitting on the bench and master and uh but you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get me later today and for the rest of the week next week too. So thank you very much. Thank you. This is possible.