It's not often that Supreme Court justices face the pubic and invite questions about their decisions. Stephen Breyer, a Clinton appointee, did just that at a couple of events recently in Los Angeles.
The first questions Breyer was asked dealt with Bush v. Gore, and with the recent Citizens United ruling, the landmark decision holding that laws limiting some corporate political contributions were an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment. Both decisions were 5–4, with Republican appointees forming the majority. The result of the first, of course, was that the Court made George Bush president; the result of the second is that corporate money has been pouring into Republican candidates this election.
Yet Breyer insists that neither Bush v. Gore nor Citizens United were "political" decisions. They were, he said, legal decisions based on legal reasoning. While pointing out that he had voted against the majority on both, he worked hard to convince the audience that the Republican positions were plausible and reasonable.
"After you're appointed to the Court," he said, "you're not political."
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