Stephen Breyer Quotes

Judges are appointed often through the political process.

No president gets all his judges.

Of all officers of government, those in whose appointment any participation of popular suffrage is the most objectionable are judicial officers.

I suggest that the executive appoint or nominate the Judges to the Senate which should have the right of rejecting or approving.

I advocate the appointment of [Federal] Judges by the Senate.

The politics of judges is getting to be red hot.

Absent scandal, a federal judge can serve for decades on the bench, underscoring the importance of appointing judges who have a proper understanding of their constitutional role.

Judges are red meat in politics.

Do not use a litmus test in the appointment of judges. Just get good judges.

In the heart of every legislator lurks a judicial candidate waiting his or her turn for election.

Of course the law's up for grabs. That's why you win elections and appoint judges.

There are some states where there are literally no lawyers on the state judiciary committee.

Many Supreme Court justices got their job precisely because they were friends with the President or other high officials.

If the state has a problem with judicial impartiality, it is largely one the state brought upon itself by continuing the practice of popularly electing judges.

A state sets itself on a collision course with the First Amendment when it chooses to popularly elect its judges but restricts a candidate’s campaign speech. To the extent states wish to avoid a politicized judiciary, they can choose to do so by not electing judges.

I don't think there should be a litmus test on judges, no matter who the president is.

I had the longest judicial vacancy in the history of the United States - on the Eastern District of North Carolina. Not many people know that.

We've always said a filibuster is not appropriate for judicial nominees. A filibuster is a legislative tool designed to extract compromises. A judicial nominee is a person. You can't take the arm or leg of a nominee.

The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court, and I take that responsibility very seriously.

In the absolute majority of western democracies - elected officials are the ones who appoint the highest bench in the judicial system. There is no reason for us to lag behind.

Blue slips enable home-state senators to ensure that the federal judges serving in their states are highly qualified.

The Senate should consider a rule ensuring that every judicial nominee receives a vote by the Senate within 180 days of being nominated by the president.

Just as judges have enormous stake in the appointment of judicial officers in the higher judiciary, the government has an equal stake. Since both of us have stakes in the appointment of members of the higher judiciary, the consultation of both of them is absolutely necessary. The government must have a say.

President Trump has kept his promise to nominate great conservative judges and I'm proud to support Damon Leichty for the Northern District of Indiana.

My concerns through the years increased about the concerns of an independent judiciary and how we maintain it. Certainly in the states. I'm a product of state government in my own state of Arizona. And it seemed to me that the popular election of judges was creating major problems in many states, and we had improved the system in Arizona. And I thought the nation ought to at least rethink how we select our nation's trial judges in the states.