
Career Highlights: Appointed by President Clinton, 1994, retired June 2022; chief judge, 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 1990-94; judge, 1st Circuit, 1980-90; chief counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 1979-80; professor, Harvard Law School, 1970-80, and assistant professor, 1967-70; special counsel, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on administrative practices, 1974-75; assistant special prosecutor, Watergate Special Prosecution Force, 1973; special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General, 1965-67; law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg, 1964-65.
Law School: LL.B., Harvard Law School
WASHINGTON - When a closely divided Supreme Court clamped down on judges' sentencing power at the end of its term, Justice Stephen G. Breyer dissented.
The court held that juries, beyond a reasonable doubt, rather than judges by the lesser preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, must make the findings that justify boosting a sentence above the normal range. Blakely v. Washington, 124 S.Ct. 2531 (U.S. Sct., June 24, 2004).
Breyer complained that, under th... (continued)