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64 N.Y.U. Ann. Surv. Am. L. 5 (2008-2009)
Tribute to Justice Stephen G. Breyer

handle is hein.journals/annam64 and id is 11 raw text is: TRIBUTE TO JUSTICE STEPHEN G. BREYER I'm told I have five minutes to make three points, three differ- ent points. First, you may think that the greatest job that Justice Breyer ever assumed and his greatest impact was as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. You are incorrect. And if you corner Justice Breyer, and engage him, he will agree with me. His greatest job in public life was as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the mid-1970s. That was where he had his greatest impact, and that is where he had his greatest accomplishments, and I think the most fun. You see, Justice Breyer was chief counsel appointed by the ranking chairman, Senator Ted Kennedy. The ranking minority member was Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. Every morning when the Senate was in session, at 8:00 Am, Justice Breyer, then chief counsel, would meet with the ranking counsel of the minor- ity-Strom Thurmond's counsel-Retired General Emory Sneeden. And the two of them would work out the agenda for the day. And I was lucky enough sometimes to sit in on those meetings, and Breyer would say, We will convene the committee at 10:00- Emory, there will be a quorum. Emory would say, Yes, there will. At 10:02, Senator Kennedy will introduce legislation; at 10:03, Sen- ator Thurmond will object. At 10:04, Senator Kennedy will ask for a roll call; at 10:05 Senator Thurmond will object. At 10:06, Senator Kennedy will ask Senator Thurmond, 'Can we lay the bill over for one week if we're guaranteed a vote?' At 10:08, Senator Thurmond would say, 'Okay.' And they would work out in a bipartisan way the complete agenda for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now of course they were very careful. They would always say to each other, Well we have to go back to our principals and check. Judges were quickly confirmed-you can have Mississippi if we can have Massachusetts, you can have a district judge in California if we can have one in Alabama. It worked. And today when you meet senators who re- member those days-Biden, Baucas, Kennedy-the senators that have been around-Leahy-they all say, Gee, Ken, remember those days when the whole Senate was more bipartisan? That's be- cause Justice Breyer and Emory Sneeden worked out the whole gov- erning of that branch of government in a fantastic way, and legislation went through; there were no objections, so it was all 5 Imaged with the Permission of NYU Annual Survey of American Law

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