Breyer in Albany
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- May
- 30
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer came to Albany Tuesday night as part of the state Court of Appeals’ lecture series. His topic: the U.S. Constitution.
In a roughly 45-minute address and a follow up Q-and-A period, the judge did not make news. But he kept the crowd of about 100 entertained with his explanation of why the Constitution revolves around one word: democracy. He used two case examples—his vote to say government can regulate campaign contributions and his vote to protect affirmative action programs.
Some excerpts: 1. “Campaign finance. My goodness, that’s a nightmare. … It’s a nightmare because so many think it’s so easy and so many think it is so easy in different ways.’’ Breyer said the issue pits the First Amendment (freedom of speech) against “the democracy that underlies the Constitution.’’ He said he chose the latter because campaign-finance laws “have as their objective preventing one group from monopolizing the playing field.’’ 2. Affirmative action pits the “colorblind view’’ against the “purposive view’’ in an interpretation of the 14th Amendment. “Former military people told us we must have some ability to discriminate for race or else you’re going to have one class of (white officers) and an enlisted class (heavy on minorities) and we can’t run the military that way.’’ Breyer said he felt “the inclusive (view) is the better lens for making a democratic system work.’’ 3. “The Warren Court was the court with a mission.’’ Breyer was a clerk to the U.S. Supreme Court headed by Earl Warren that made so many landmark civil rights decisions. Rather than sitting back and avoiding politics, the court said “let’s open our eyes and look at the South.’’ “Today, there is not a mission like that, for better or for worse. So today you have a more judicial court.’’ 4. “That’s like asking about the recipe for Chicken a la king from the point of view of the chicken,’’ Breyer said when asked what he thought of the grinding public confirmation process for Supreme Court nominees. 5. “This document,’’ the justice said, pulling a small copy of the Constitution from his coat pocket, “won’t work if you don’t participate.’’ (For those interested, Breyer received no payment for his appearance, not even travel expenses, according to a spokesman.)
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 1:45 pm by Yancey Roy.
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