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In January of 2022, after more than three decades on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen G. Breyer announced that he\u2019ll retire at the end of the current term, once his successor has been confirmed.

Born in San Francisco, Breyer received a BA in philosophy from Stanford, attended Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, and earned his law degree from Harvard University. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1994 by President Clinton. Breyer is known for his pragmatic approach to constitutional law, urging judges to consider both the purpose of statutory and constitutional text, as well as the potential consequences of specific rulings when deciding cases.\xa0 His optimistic viewpoint, well-articulated in his books, describes judges as essential in building \u201cproductive working relationships with other institutions,\u201d especially Congress and the Executive branches. His latest book,\xa0The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics\xa0(2021), is a reflection on the authority of the Supreme Court\u2014both how that authority was gained, and how measures to restructure it could undermine the Court itself as well as the constitutional system of checks and balances that depends on it.

Stephen Breyer has been a guest on City Arts & Lectures several times.\xa0 In this conversation, recorded on September 25, 2015, he talked with Marcia Coyle about his recently published book \u201cThe Court and the World\u201d. Coyle\xa0is a lawyer, journalist, and the Chief Washington Correspondent for\xa0The National Law Journal, covering the U.S. Supreme Court and national legal issues.