    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 19 (Monday, May 16, 1994)]
    [Pages 1064-1067]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks Announcing Stephen G. Breyer as Supreme Court Associate Justice
    Nominee and an Exchange With Reporters

    May 13, 1994

        The President. Good afternoon. Today I am proud to nominate Judge
    Stephen Breyer to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
        I believe a President can best serve our country by nominating a
    candidate for the Supreme Court whose experience manifests the quality
    in a Justice that matters most, excellence: excellence in knowledge,
    excellence in judgment, excellence in devotion to the Constitution, to
    the country, and to the real people. It is a duty best exercised wisely
    and not in haste.
        I have reflected on this decision now for the last several weeks,
    about 37 days. I have been well served by the White House Coun-

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    sel, Lloyd Cutler, and the other members of our legal staff who have
    worked very hard, by our Chief of Staff, Mr. McLarty, who's kept the
    process going in an orderly way, and by others who worked on it. We have
    worked hard to achieve the pursuit of excellence. In that pursuit, I
    came again to Judge Breyer, who serves today, as most of you know, as
    the chief judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the first
    circuit. And I will nominate him to be the Supreme Court's 108th
    Justice.
        Without dispute, he is one of the outstanding jurists of our age. He
    has a clear grasp of the law, a boundless respect for the constitutional
    and legal rights of the American people, a searching and restless
    intellect, and a remarkable ability to explain complex subjects in
    understandable terms. He has proven that he can build an effective
    consensus and get people of diverse views to work together for justice's
    sake. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford, a graduate of Oxford
    University, a magna cum laude graduate of the Harvard Law School. He
    served the late Justice Goldberg as a law clerk, spent 2 years in the
    Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, and served as chief
    counsel of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where he had the
    opportunity to work with Senators of both parties.
        Judge Breyer has had a private law practice, has written dozens of
    scholarly articles, published in distinguished law reviews and legal
    texts. And he's been a member of the Federal Sentencing Commission. For
    more than a decade he served with true distinction on the U.S. Court of
    Appeals in the First Circuit. His writings in areas ranging from the
    interpretation of legislation and analysis of the sentencing guidelines
    to the underpinnings, regulation, and the interplay of economics and the
    law reveal a keen and vital mind. His record displays a thirst for
    justice. His career personifies both public service and patriotism.
        As you know, I had a wealth of talent to choose from in making this
    nomination. In addition to Judge Breyer, whom I considered very
    seriously for this position the last time I had a Supreme Court
    appointment, I'd like to take just a moment to comment on two of the
    gentlemen who made this decision a difficult one for me.
        Secretary Babbitt was attorney general and Governor of his State,
    and during that time, a colleague of mine. He was a candidate for the
    Presidency in a race which everyone acknowledged raised the serious and
    substantive issues of the day. He has been a very effective Secretary of
    the Interior for me, one of the most sensitive, complex, and difficult
    posts in this administration. He would bring to the Court the
    responsibility and discipline of service in public life. He would bring
    a feel for law at the State level and, most important perhaps, for life
    at the grassroots. Although I know he would be a good addition, indeed,
    a superb addition to the Court, frankly, I came to the same conclusion I
    have every time I've thought about him: I couldn't bear to lose him from
    the Cabinet, from his service at Interior, from his service as an
    adviser to me and a vital and leading member of our domestic policy
    team.
        Judge Richard Arnold, the chief judge of the eighth circuit, has
    been a friend of mine for a long time. I have the greatest respect for
    his intellect, for his role as a jurist, and for his extraordinary
    character. I think a measure of the devotion and the admiration in which
    he is held is evidenced by the fact that somewhere around 100 judges,
    one-eighth of the entire Federal bench, wrote me endorsing his candidacy
    for the Supreme Court. But as has been widely reported in the press,
    Judge Arnold has cancer and is now undergoing a course of treatment. I
    have every confidence that that treatment will be successful. And if I
    am fortunate enough to have other opportunities to make appointments to
    the Court, I know I will be able to consider Judge Arnold at the top of
    the list.
        Five decades ago, Judge Learned Hand defined the spirit of liberty
    as the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and
    women, the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own bias,
    the spirit which lies hidden in the aspirations of us all. When our
    citizens hear about Judge Breyer's nomination and learn about his
    background and beliefs, I believe they will join me in saying, here is
    someone touched by that spirit of liberty, who believes in the
    Constitution and

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    the Bill of Rights, who is graced with the intellectual capacity and the
    good judgment a Supreme Court Justice ought to have, and whose
    background and temperament clearly qualify him to be an outstanding
    Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
        So I will send his nomination to the Senate for confirmation with
    great pride and high hopes.
        Q. Mr. President, you have foregone the opportunity to name someone
    with greater political experience, such as Secretary Babbitt. What makes
    you think that Judge Breyer will be able to reshape the Court or forge a
    new consensus----
        The President. No, I think, Judge Breyer actually has quite a lot of
    political savvy, and I would say two things. First of all, as you know,
    when I talked about Senator Mitchell, I would not have offered the
    position to Senator Mitchell if he were running for reelection and were
    willing to stay as majority leader of the Senate. And I felt the same
    way in the end about Secretary Babbitt. I mean, here's a man that is
    dealing with issues of incredible magnitude, especially in the West, a
    very important part of our country. And so I just couldn't bear to think
    about that.
        And then, the more I thought about Steve Breyer and the time I spent
    with him last time I had a vacancy on the Court, the more I realized he
    had proved that he had the kind of political capacity and judgment we
    need because he'd been exposed to the full range of issues working here
    as the chief of staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He obviously
    has a lot of political skills because of his reputation as a consensus
    builder on a court where most of the appointees were made by Republican
    Presidents. And look at the people supporting his nomination. I mean,
    he's gotten Senator Kennedy and Senator Hatch together. I wish I had
    that kind of political skill. [Laughter]
        Q. [Inaudible]--between two others who might not be as easy to
    confirm enter into your selection process?
        The President.  No. I'm convinced all three of them would have been
    handily confirmed. I know--I mean, I've heard all this, but I'm
    convinced all three of them would have been handily confirmed. I have no
    doubt about it whatever. And I spent quite a lot of time on that.
        Q.  Mr. President, in the end, why do you think that there was so
    much--maybe it's our fault as much as it is your aides' fault--so much
    confusion in which direction you were leaning? Earlier in the week we
    thought that Secretary Babbitt had the best choice. Then later, it was
    Judge Arnold. Now, of course, you've made your decision.
        The President. Because you all didn't talk to me. When we have these
    appointments that only I make, especially if it's something where, with
    all respect to my aides, I think I know as much or more about it as they
    do. And I told you all, they worked hard for me, and they did a
    wonderful job. There's an enormous amount of work to do, but--one of the
    best jobs I ever had was teaching the Constitution of the United States
    to law students. I care a lot about the Supreme Court. I read people's
    opinions. I read articles. I read letters that people send me about
    prospective candidates. I think about this a lot, and I care very deeply
    about it. And I was going to take whatever time I had to take to think
    this through.
        In the course of those conversations with my staff, I always try to
    take, when we get down to the finals, where I'm down to three or four
    folks, I try to take every strong suit I can about a candidate and work
    through it, every weakness and we work through it.
        But I think, you know, on these Supreme Court cases--we may never
    get another appointment, but if I get another one you're just going to
    have to ride along with me because in the end, I'm going to make the
    decision. I'm going to do what I think is right.
        But I've told you what happened today. All three of them had a great
    claim. I couldn't bear to lose Bruce Babbitt. With Judge Arnold, I think
    we have to have the progress of his health ultimately resolved. He is a
    magnificent man, and I think a lot of the stated opposition to him was
    based on a misunderstanding and was flat wrong. And I would have been
    happy to defend him against all comers from now to doomsday. But I think
    I have done the right thing by my country with this appointment, and I
    feel very good about it.

    [[Page 1067]]

        Q. Mr. President, when you look at the mark that you want to leave
    on the Court, what specifically does Judge Breyer bring to the Court?
        The President. I think he brings three things that I think are
    important, besides the ability to get people together and work with
    them. I think he brings, one, a real devotion to the Bill of Rights and
    to the idea that personal freedoms are important to the American people.
    And I think he will strike the right balance between the need for
    discipline and order, being firm on law enforcement issues but really
    sticking in there for the Bill of Rights and for the issue of personal
    freedoms. You know, this country got started by people who wanted a good
    letting alone from Government. And every time we think about doing
    anything around here, we have to recognize that Americans have always
    had a healthy skepticism about Government reaching into their lives. I
    think he understands that.
        The second thing I think he understands is the practical
    implications of governmental actions that the Court may have to review.
    I know that some of his writings have been a little bit controversial in
    some quarters in analyzing the economic impacts of governmental actions
    and things of that kind. But I think that he shows that he really
    understands that.
        The third thing that I think he can do is cut through the incredible
    complexities that surround so many of the issues that we're confronted
    with in our world today and render them simple, clear, and
    understandable, not only--first of all, to himself, secondly, to his
    colleagues, and thirdly, to the American people. I think it is important
    that the American people have confidence in the Supreme Court and feel
    that somehow it is accessible to them. And I believe that Judge Breyer
    will do a good job of that.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 6 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House.