Retired Justice Breyer to Hear Appeals Cases

(Scott Applewhite/AP)

Retired liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to get back to hearing cases by sitting as a visiting judge on the federal appeals court in Boston.

Breyer, who served on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for 14 years before joining the U.S. Supreme Court in 1994, revealed his plans during a podcast interview with Democratic strategist James Carville released on Thursday.

Breyer, 85, stepped down from the Supreme Court in June 2022, following the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s nominee to succeed him, Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to ever serve on court.

But he did not leave the judiciary itself and instead assumed senior status, a form of semi-retirement for judges, which Breyer noted as he explained to Carville why he continued to act like a judge and follow standards that apply to them.

“I’m a judge,” Breyer said. “If you take senior status, you remain a judge. And not only do you remain a judge in terms of status, but probably next fall I will go over and sit with the 1st Circuit. So I’m still an active judge.”

It was unclear when exactly Breyer would hear cases with the 1st Circuit. Court officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Breyer was appointed to the Supreme Court by Democrat former President Bill Clinton.

By sitting with the 1st Circuit as a retired Supreme Court justice, Breyer would be following in the footsteps of his friend and former colleague David Souter, a New Hampshire native who after leaving the Supreme Court in 2009 has frequently sat as a visiting judge on the Boston-based appeals court.

That court hears appeals from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, and Rhode Island. It is the smallest of the 13 federal appeals courts. It has five active judges all appointed by Democrat presidents. A sixth, nominated by Biden, is awaiting Senate confirmation.

Since leaving the Supreme Court, Breyer has rejoined Harvard Law School’s faculty, which he was part of until joining the 1st Circuit in 1980, and released a book, “Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism,” which was published last week.