Stephen G. Breyer Biography

Stephen Gerald Breyer has been an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court since 1994. A native of San Francisco, he earned undergraduate degrees from Stanford University in 1959 and Oxford's Magdalen College in 1961, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1964. Breyer was a law clerk for Arthur Goldberg of the Supreme Court and taught at Harvard Law School during the 1960s, and in the 1970s he worked closely with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, first as Special Counsel (1974-75) and then as Chief Counsel (1979-80).  Stephen Breyer was appointed as a federal judge by President Ronald Reagan, and served in the First Circuit Court of Appeals from 1980 until his nomination to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton.  Breyer was approved by members of the U.S. Senate 87-9 and was sworn in 3 August 1994. Breyer has a reputation as a moderate who champions pragmatic solutions.