Stephen Breyer

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.

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.

That is the definition of equal justice under law: everyone gets a fair shot, everyone pays their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.

At the insistence of the Bush administration, Congress in 2006 passed legislation that required the Postal Service to prefund, over a 10-year period, 75 years of future retiree health benefits.

If you look at my CV, just about everything I have done has come through a publicly funded institution; it is a career entirely built on that sort of support.