Courts

Breyer Refuses To Call Conservative-Majority Supreme Court ‘Conservative’

Just because the high court stayed out of the latest election may not mean what he thinks it means....

Justice Stephen Breyer (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The court’s decision in the 2000 presidential election case, Bush v. Gore, is often referred to as an example of its favoritism of conservative causes. But the court did not hear or decide cases that affected the political disagreements arising out of the later 2020 election.

— Justice Stephen Breyer, rejecting the characterization of the Supreme Court as “conservative” in a speech given as part of Harvard Law School’s Scalia Lecture series. Breyer, a liberal who is being pushed toward retirement, also pointed out that the high court had kept abortion rights intact and hadn’t gone along with all of former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.