WASHINGTON (AP) – Until last week when he swore in Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, his successor on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer had a rigorous, intellectually challenging job with the highest of stakes. Now the 83-year-old retiree has no briefs to read and no opinions to write.
As a retired justice, Breyer can maintain an office at the Supreme Court if he wants to and also gets a clerk to help him. But like other retired justices he also gets to chart his own path based on his personality and interests. One example: Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the court’s first female justice, in retirement founded a group that teaches students civics through computer games.
Here are some things Breyer might do in retirement:
JUDGE
Just because Breyer has retired doesn’t mean he has to stop hearing cases. A 1937 law allows retired Supreme Court justices to continue to hear and decide cases on lower federal courts, a practice called “sitting by designation.” A number of retired justices have continued to sit on federal courts of appeal, the level below the Supreme Court, where judges hear cases in three-judge panels.