Former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer weighs in on originalism, term limits

One of the most notable achievements of Donald Trump's presidency was the conservative shift at the Supreme Court that resulted from the three justices he placed on the panel, though not everyone is celebrating the change.

Retired Justice Stephen Breyer, for one, has lamented what he feels are the current court's attacks on the priorities of the Biden administration such as those relating to abortion, and he warns that the panel may end up giving the country a constitution that no one wants,” as The Hill reports.

Breyer's observations came in a recent interview with Politico Magazine in which he cautioned against originalist interpretations of the law that so often find favor with the court's conservative majority.

In Breyer's opinion, interpreting statutes according to the writers' original intent without consideration of changes in society that have unfolded in the interim is a sure path to creating a scenario that was never intended nor desired.

Speaking to Politico, Breyer opined that this is because “the world does change, not necessarily so much in terms of values, but certainly in terms of the facts to which those values are applied.”

He decried the strict application of originalism, suggesting that it disregards “lots of changes designed to further the value of protecting basic civil rights, because the world has changed.”

To illustrate his position, Breyer stated, “When the founders were thinking about and writing the words of the Constitution and protecting certain basic rights in the Constitution, women were not really part of the political process. They didn't have a right to vote, and there was slavery, and the slaves weren't part of [the political process either].

The 85-year-old former justice's thoughts on originalism were not the only news he made in recent days, as he also weighed in on the subject of the appropriate length of tenure for those who ascend to the high court, as the New York Post noted.

During an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Breyer signaled an openness to the imposition on term limits for Supreme Court justices, provided they were not short in duration.

Speaking about the possibility of implementing such restrictions, Breyer said, “I don't think that's harmful.”

With that said, however, the longtime liberal justice added, “They'd have to be long. Why long? Because I don't think you want someone who's appointed to the Supreme Court to be thinking about his next job.”

Breyer noted that had term limits been in place when he was on the bench, he could have perhaps avoided the task of working through what he referred to as “difficult decisions” about when he should depart the court.

Prior to his retirement, Breyer faced a pressure campaign from far-left activists who believed he needed to step down while his successor could still be named by a Democrat president, a push he ultimately heeded.

Now, with the possibility of a second Trump presidency on the horizon, similar suggestions are being made to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 69, who some liberal pundits say needs to clear the path for a younger, progressive nominee while she still can, but whether she will follow in Breyer's footsteps and acquiesce to those demands, only time will tell.