Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism

5/3/2025

Justice Stephen Breyer

 

The Honorable Stephen Breyer is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. After a brilliant academic start at Stanford, Oxford and Harvard, his career has included clerking for Justice Arthur Goldberg, serving on the Watergate prosecution team, and teaching at Harvard Law School and at the Harvard Kennedy School. In 1980 he was appointed by President Carter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, becoming Chief Judge in 1990. In 1994 President Clinton appointed him to the Supreme Court, where he served for 28 years. He is now the Byrne Professor of Administrative Law and Process at Harvard Law School. Justice Breyer is the author of many books and articles, most recently the bestselling Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism (2024), whose title serves as the subject of his lecture.