Stephen Breyer

“It's important to every American that the law protect his or her basic liberty.”

“Ultimately, the question of campaign contributions will be decided by the public.”

“And in that confirmation process, I sat for 17 hours in front of a senate judiciary committee.”

“There are loads of countries that have nice written constitutions like ours. But there aren't loads of countries where they're followed.”

“It doesn't help to fight crime to put people in prison who are innocent.”

“I thought that that was an effort to inject a popular element, a democratic element into the selection of a person who, once he is selected and confirmed, is beyond electoral control.”

“I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less.”

“Well, just that there would be somebody in the office and the voters - it was more or less an understanding in the entire community, as long as that person was doing a good job on the merits...”

“Judges are appointed often through the political process.”

“At least there's a political input, but when you put on the robe, at that point the politics is over.”

“But once the person is selected, at that point that person is independent.”

“We are selected, but I grew up in California and in San Francisco and there was a system of electing judges.”

“Nobody wants a judge to be subject to the political whim of the moment.”