CNN
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Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on Wednesday defended federal judges that have come under withering criticism from President Donald Trump and his allies for a series of rulings that have slowed the White House’s agenda.
Breyer, who retired from the court in 2022, said that every judge in the nation is “aware of the climate of the era” but said that they must nevertheless decide controversial cases based on their best – if sometimes imperfect – reading of the law.
“You decide what you think is correct in the law. Period,” Breyer said during an exclusive interview on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer & Pamela Brown.”
“But are you aware of what’s going in the country? Yes, you are,” he added.
Breyer’s remarks came as federal judges have faced fierce criticism from the Trump administration over rulings that have temporarily halted some of the president’s actions, including a block on rapid deportations under a wartime authority enacted in 1798. Trump urged Congress to impeach the judge involved in that case, which prompted a highly unusual public statement from Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday.
Roberts urged parties who lose in lower courts to appeal those decisions rather than threatening to impeach the judge who made them.
Breyer told CNN that he thought Roberts’ statement was appropriate.
“He’s trying to explain to the people of this country how the legal system works and how it doesn’t work,” Breyer said of Roberts. “It doesn’t work by impeaching a judge because you don’t like his decision.”
Breyer demurred when asked by Blitzer if the nation is nearing a constitutional crisis.
“No one really knows. People have different views on that,” Breyer said. “The best thing for the judges is, you follow the law.”
Breyer, nominated to the court by President Bill Clinton, announced his retirement in 2022. President Joe Biden named Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former Breyer clerk, to replace him and she was confirmed by the Senate in April of that same year.
