Politics & Government

Justice Stephen Breyer, an influential liberal on the Supreme Court, to retire

By Nina Totenberg

Published January 26, 2022 at 12:22 PM EST

1 of 11 — Justice Stephen Breyer, photographed in 2015.

Justice Stephen Breyer, photographed in 2015.

Ariel Zambelich / NPR

2 of 11 — President Bill Clinton jogged with his nominee to the Supreme Court, Stephen Breyer, on the National Mall on May 16, 1994. Known for keeping himself in good physical condition, Breyer also wrecked his bicycle on at least three occasions.

President Bill Clinton jogged with his nominee to the Supreme Court, Stephen Breyer, on the National Mall on May 16, 1994. Known for keeping himself in good physical condition, Breyer also wrecked his bicycle on at least three occasions.

David Ake / AFP/Getty Images

3 of 11 — (Front row, left to right) Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, and (back row, left to right) Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice David H. Souter, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Stephen G. Breyer pose for photographers at the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 31, 2005 in Washington D.C.

(Front row, left to right) Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice John Paul Stevens, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, and (back row, left to right) Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice David H. Souter, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Stephen G. Breyer pose for photographers at the U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 31, 2005 in Washington D.C.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, wearing a <em>Cat in the Hat</em> hat and tie, gestures while reading Dr. Seuss' <em>Oh, the Places You'll Go!</em> to students of Washington's Watkins Elementary School at the Supreme Court in March 2003, as part of Read Across America Day.

4 of 11 — Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, wearing a Cat in the Hat hat and tie, gestures while reading Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go! to students of Washington's Watkins Elementary School at the Supreme Court in March 2003, as part of Read Across America Day.

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, wearing a Cat in the Hat hat and tie, gestures while reading Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Places You'll Go! to students of Washington's Watkins Elementary School at the Supreme Court in March 2003, as part of Read Across America Day.

Evan Vucci / AP

5 of 11 — Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (left) talks with Justice Stephen Breyer during the Sandra Day O'Connor Project on The State of The Judiciary's forum "Striking the Balance: Fair and Independent Courts in a New Era" at Georgetown University Law Center on May 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C.

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (left) talks with Justice Stephen Breyer during the Sandra Day O'Connor Project on The State of The Judiciary's forum "Striking the Balance: Fair and Independent Courts in a New Era" at Georgetown University Law Center on May 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

6 of 11 — Britain's Prince Charles walks out of the Supreme Court with Justice Breyer (center) in Washington, D.C., on May 3, 2011.

Britain's Prince Charles walks out of the Supreme Court with Justice Breyer (center) in Washington, D.C., on May 3, 2011.

Alex Brandon / AP

7 of 11 — Justice Stephen Breyer (left) speaks along with Justice Antonin Scalia as they testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing entitled, "Considering the Role of Judges Under the Constitution of the United States" at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 5, 2011.

Justice Stephen Breyer (left) speaks along with Justice Antonin Scalia as they testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing entitled, "Considering the Role of Judges Under the Constitution of the United States" at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 5, 2011.

Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images

8 of 11 — U.S. Supreme Court Justices (from left) Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, play the roles of themselves in the Washington Opera's production of Die Fledermaus at Independence Hall in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 6, 2003. Despite their limited performing arts resumes, the three made rare special appearances, with non-singing roles, in the opera.

U.S. Supreme Court Justices (from left) Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, play the roles of themselves in the Washington Opera's production of Die Fledermaus at Independence Hall in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 6, 2003. Despite their limited performing arts resumes, the three made rare special appearances, with non-singing roles, in the opera.

Gerald Herbert / AP

9 of 11 — Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan (center) and Stephen Breyer leave the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle with clergy after the annual Red Mass for Supreme Court justices in Washington on Oct. 5, 2014.

Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan (center) and Stephen Breyer leave the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle with clergy after the annual Red Mass for Supreme Court justices in Washington on Oct. 5, 2014.

Jose Luis Magana / AP

10 of 11 — Justice Breyer and his wife, Joanna, attend an Afternoon Tea on Jan. 18, 2017, hosted by the British Embassy to mark the U.S. Presidential Inauguration.

Justice Breyer and his wife, Joanna, attend an Afternoon Tea on Jan. 18, 2017, hosted by the British Embassy to mark the U.S. Presidential Inauguration.

Paul Morigi / Getty Images

11 of 11 — Justice Stephen Breyer, photographed in 2021.

Justice Stephen Breyer, photographed in 2021.

Elizabeth Gillis / NPR

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring after serving more than two decades on the nation's highest court, White House and Supreme Court sources tell NPR.

Breyer — professorial, practical, and moderately liberal — wrote many of the court's legally important but less glamorous decisions and sought, behind the scenes, to build consensus for centrist decisions on a conservative court.

Breyer's retirement gives President Biden his first opportunity to name a new justice to the court. During the 2020 campaign, he pledged to name an African American woman if he got the chance. The two leading contenders are said to be federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was on President Obama's shortlist for the court in 2016, and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, who served as assistant, and then deputy solicitor general in both Democratic and Republican administrations prior to her nomination to California's highest court.

Both women are young, in terms of Supreme Court appointment. And both have stellar legal credentials.

Breyer, though not a household name, has been an important figure on the Supreme Court for more than a quarter century.

Perhaps his most publicly well-known decision came in 2016 when he wrote the court's abortion opinion striking down a Texas law, copied in other states, that closed nearly half the clinics in the state without any demonstrable safety justification. The decision dispassionately dissected and demolished the state's claim that its motive was to protect women's health and safety. It had no majestic language, but its effect was profound in reaffirming the rights of women to terminate pregnancies.

In many respects, Breyer's monuments were not so much the decisions that he authored as the decisions that he influenced. Behind the scenes, he pushed and prodded his fellow justices for consensus on everything from Obamacare to affirmative action in higher education.

He believed in persuasion and viewed a dissent as a failed opinion. But he did dissent, and sometimes passionately — for example, in 2007 when a five-justice majority struck down voluntary school desegregation plans in Louisville, Ky., where the schools had once been segregated by law, and in Seattle, where they had been segregated in practice.

Corrected: January 26, 2022 at 12:00 AM EST

An earlier version of this story said Breyer is 84 years old. He is 83.