Events

Justice Stephen Breyer: 'Reading the Constitution'

Justice Breyer informal photo 2023

Former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Stephen G. Breyer in 2023

Henry J. Abraham Distinguished Lecture

Justice Stephen Breyer: 'Reading the Constitution'

Justice Stephen Breyer, Risa Goluboff (co-moderator), Barbara Perry (co-moderator)

Thursday, October 17, 2024
11:00AM - 12:00PM (EDT)
Event Details

Please note: In-person registration for this event is now full, but you can still register for the webinar.

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The 24th annual Henry J. Abraham Distinguished Lecture features retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States Stephen Breyer. He joins Barbara Perry, the Miller Center’s Gerald L. Baliles Professor of Presidential Studies and co-director of the Presidential Oral History Program, and Risa Goluboff, former UVA Law School dean and the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law, for a wide-ranging conversation on Justice Breyer’s new book, Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism. Together they will discuss Justice Breyer’s judicial philosophy through an examination of some of the Court’s most historic cases.

The Abraham Distinguished Lecture honors renowned constitutional law scholar Henry J. Abraham (1921–2020), who was the James Hart Professor of Government Emeritus at the University of Virginia.

The annual Abraham Lecture was established in 1999 by his students, colleagues, family, and friends to recognize Dr. Abraham’s profound contributions to judicial studies in political science. His life story of escaping the Nazis in 1937 at the age of 15, serving as a U.S. Army interpreter during WWII, and then devoting his life to the U.S. Constitution is as compelling as it is poignant. Previous lecturers have included Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Justice Antonin Scalia, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, Judge J. Michael Luttig, John Jeffries, Ted Olson, General William Suter, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Nadine Strossen, Ambassador Thomas Pickering, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Tinsley Yarbrough, Kenneth Feinberg, and journalists Linda Greenhouse, Joan Biskupic, Jan Crawford, Marcia Coyle, and Evan Thomas.

This event takes place in Caplin Auditorium at the University of Virginia School of Law. Parking will be available in Law School lots D2 and D3.

 

When
Thursday, October 17, 2024
11:00AM - 12:00PM (EDT)
Where
Caplin Auditorium
University of Virginia School of Law
580 Massie Road
Charlottesville, VA
&
ONLINE
Speakers
justice-breyer-official-photo

Justice Stephen Breyer

The Honorable Stephen Breyer is a retired associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Born in San Francisco in 1938, he is a graduate of Stanford, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. He has taught law for many years as a professor at Harvard Law School and at the Kennedy School of Government. He has also worked as a Supreme Court law clerk (for Justice Arthur Goldberg), a Justice Department lawyer (antitrust division), an assistant Watergate special prosecutor, and chief counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 1980, he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit by President Carter, becoming chief judge in 1990. In 1994, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Clinton. He has written books and articles about a range of legal topics, including administrative law, economic regulation, and the U.S. Constitution.  His books include Active Liberty (2005), Making Our Democracy Work: A Judge's View (2010), The Court and the World (2015), The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics (2021), and Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism (2024). His wife, Joanna, was born in Great Britain and is a retired clinical psychologist. They have three children—Chloe, Nell, and Michael—and six grandchildren.

Risa Goluboff headshot

Risa Goluboff (co-moderator)

Risa Goluboff, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law and a professor of history. She served as the 12th, and the first female, dean of the University of Virginia School of Law from 2016 to 2024. She is a nationally renowned legal historian whose scholarship and teaching focuses on American constitutional and civil rights law, especially their historical development in the 20th century. Prior to joining the UVA School of Law in 2002, Goluboff clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court. She holds an AB from Harvard University, an MA from Princeton University, a JD from Yale Law School, and a PhD from Princeton University.

Barbara Perry headshot

Barbara Perry (co-moderator)

Barbara A. Perry is the Gerald L. Baliles Professor in Presidential Studies at the Miller Center, where she co-directs the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored or edited 17 books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights and civil liberties. Perry has conducted more than 150 interviews for the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama Presidential Oral History Projects; interviewed President Bill Clinton; and directed the Edward Kennedy Oral History Project's conclusion. She served as a U.S. Supreme Court fellow and has worked for both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate. Perry earned a BA in political science from the University of Louisville, an MA in politics, philosophy, and economics from Oxford University, and a PhD in government from the University of Virginia.