SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, with President Joe Biden, holds a copy of the Constitution as he announces his retirement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 27, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Exiting Breyer Quotes Lincoln: 'We Are Now Engaged in a Great Civil War'
The Supreme Court justice appeared to be "pointedly talking about threats facing the country," said one observer.
Jan 27, 2022
Officially announcing his retirement Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer quoted former President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as the outgoing jurist suggested the country was embroiled in something like the "great civil war" of the nation's past.
"This is a complicated country," said the justice, adding that the U.S. was conceived as "an experiment" as he held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
"We are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure," Breyer added, quoting the words of Lincoln.
\u201c\u2018We are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation \u2026 can long endure\u2019 \u2014 Justice Stephen Breyer looked back on the conception of the United States at the announcement of his retirement from the Supreme Court\u201d— NowThis (@NowThis) 1643306147
The justice announced his retirement just over a year after former President Donald Trump incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol which was aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 election--an incident that Trump's allies continue to downplay as the former president leads in 2024 presidential candidate polls.
The U.S. also faces the coronavirus pandemic and a right-wing misinformation campaign which has been blamed for driving up death rates; continued racial injustice and the Republican Party's fight to keep discussions of racism out of public schools; attacks on voting rights and reproductive freedom across the nation; and a widening gap between lower- and middle-income Americans and the richest corporations and people in the country. Right-wing lawmakers have stood in the way of proposals to solve several of these crises despite their broad popularity with the public.
Leah Litman, a professor at University of Michigan Law School and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, tweeted that Breyer appeared to be "pointedly talking about threats facing the country."
\u201cwow Justice Breyer seems to be ... pointedly talking about threats facing the country. and about how future generations will determine and see whether this experiment succeeds.\u201d— Leah Litman (@Leah Litman) 1643305255
"Not by accident," saidNBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss, "did Justice Breyer... remind us that the American system is always an experiment whose survival must never be taken for granted."
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Officially announcing his retirement Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer quoted former President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as the outgoing jurist suggested the country was embroiled in something like the "great civil war" of the nation's past.
"This is a complicated country," said the justice, adding that the U.S. was conceived as "an experiment" as he held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
"We are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure," Breyer added, quoting the words of Lincoln.
\u201c\u2018We are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation \u2026 can long endure\u2019 \u2014 Justice Stephen Breyer looked back on the conception of the United States at the announcement of his retirement from the Supreme Court\u201d— NowThis (@NowThis) 1643306147
The justice announced his retirement just over a year after former President Donald Trump incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol which was aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 election--an incident that Trump's allies continue to downplay as the former president leads in 2024 presidential candidate polls.
The U.S. also faces the coronavirus pandemic and a right-wing misinformation campaign which has been blamed for driving up death rates; continued racial injustice and the Republican Party's fight to keep discussions of racism out of public schools; attacks on voting rights and reproductive freedom across the nation; and a widening gap between lower- and middle-income Americans and the richest corporations and people in the country. Right-wing lawmakers have stood in the way of proposals to solve several of these crises despite their broad popularity with the public.
Leah Litman, a professor at University of Michigan Law School and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, tweeted that Breyer appeared to be "pointedly talking about threats facing the country."
\u201cwow Justice Breyer seems to be ... pointedly talking about threats facing the country. and about how future generations will determine and see whether this experiment succeeds.\u201d— Leah Litman (@Leah Litman) 1643305255
"Not by accident," saidNBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss, "did Justice Breyer... remind us that the American system is always an experiment whose survival must never be taken for granted."
Officially announcing his retirement Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer quoted former President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as the outgoing jurist suggested the country was embroiled in something like the "great civil war" of the nation's past.
"This is a complicated country," said the justice, adding that the U.S. was conceived as "an experiment" as he held up a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
"We are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure," Breyer added, quoting the words of Lincoln.
\u201c\u2018We are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation \u2026 can long endure\u2019 \u2014 Justice Stephen Breyer looked back on the conception of the United States at the announcement of his retirement from the Supreme Court\u201d— NowThis (@NowThis) 1643306147
The justice announced his retirement just over a year after former President Donald Trump incited a deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol which was aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 election--an incident that Trump's allies continue to downplay as the former president leads in 2024 presidential candidate polls.
The U.S. also faces the coronavirus pandemic and a right-wing misinformation campaign which has been blamed for driving up death rates; continued racial injustice and the Republican Party's fight to keep discussions of racism out of public schools; attacks on voting rights and reproductive freedom across the nation; and a widening gap between lower- and middle-income Americans and the richest corporations and people in the country. Right-wing lawmakers have stood in the way of proposals to solve several of these crises despite their broad popularity with the public.
Leah Litman, a professor at University of Michigan Law School and former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, tweeted that Breyer appeared to be "pointedly talking about threats facing the country."
\u201cwow Justice Breyer seems to be ... pointedly talking about threats facing the country. and about how future generations will determine and see whether this experiment succeeds.\u201d— Leah Litman (@Leah Litman) 1643305255
"Not by accident," saidNBC News presidential historian Michael Beschloss, "did Justice Breyer... remind us that the American system is always an experiment whose survival must never be taken for granted."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.