Retired Supreme Court Justice Breyer will hear cases with 1st Circuit
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is returning to the federal bench. (Photo by Evan Vucci/The Associated Press)
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is returning to the federal bench.
In a calendar released Monday, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Boston revealed that Breyer will hear nine cases as a member of two three-judge panels Jan. 8 and 9.
According to Reuters, which has coverage, it will mark the first time that Breyer has done so since retiring from the Supreme Court in June 2022.
Among his cases, Breyer will hear arguments Jan. 8 involving limits on cruise ship passenger visits to Bar Harbor, Maine. He also will hear on Jan. 9 a former Haitian mayor’s appeal of a jury verdict directing him to pay $15.5 million over allegations that he tortured and killed political rivals.
Reuters first reported Breyer’s plans to sit as a visiting judge on the 1st Circuit in April 2024. He served on the federal appeals court from 1980 to 1994, which included four years as its chief justice. Then-President Bill Clinton then appointed him to the Supreme Court.
“I’m a judge,” Breyer said during an episode of the Politics War Room With James Carville & Al Hunt podcast. “If you take senior status, you remain a judge. And not only you remain a judge in terms of status but probably next fall, I will go over and sit with the 1st Circuit.”
After his retirement, Breyer became chair of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative’s board. A member of the association since 1988, Breyer served as a special adviser to the ABA ROLI board. He received the ABA Medal, the association’s highest honor, in 2022.
Breyer also taught at Harvard Law School and wrote a book on the U.S. Constitution since stepping down from the Supreme Court.
He was succeeded by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
