Sai Kulkarni ‘23
Production Editor
This past week, the Law School had the distinct honor of playing host to now-retired Justice Stephen J. Breyer as he was presented with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law. The reason you are getting to read a front-page account of the event is because the Law School was gracious enough to grant myself and our esteemed EIC, Dana Lake ’23, press passes to cover the event.[1] From the outset, it was clear that the event was well-organized. There were six rows reserved for the Board of Trustees, VIPs, and professors. Noted subject of many sketches in the Libel Show, Dean Dugas, was there to escort all the important people to their seats. There was even a surprise appearance in the VIP section by some youths who I assume belonged to Professor Schragger.[2] The room was already almost full by 1:30; turns out students will skip class easily if you give them a legitimate excuse. As is expected from an event featuring a recently retired Supreme Court Justice, there were security personnel all over the premises.[3]
It was easy to tell when the event was about to begin, as there was an immediate hush over the crowd as Justice Breyer walked in from backstage. Unlike a 10 a.m. class, everyone was bubbling with anticipation as the first speaker got on stage: President Jim Ryan. President Ryan spoke both about the prestige of the Thomas Jefferson Medal—the fact that it is the highest honor at the University, since we do not give out honorary degrees—and the “contributions and contradictions” of President Jefferson. His comments about Justice Breyer can be summarized by his praise of the Justice’s “outstanding service…in public service.”
Leading with a short joke, as I am sure she is contractually obligated to do, the next person up was Dean Risa Goluboff. As a former clerk for Justice Breyer, she is one of the few people equipped to talk about him on a personal level. She praised his work on “democracy and deliberation” and labeled him as one of the “statesmen of the highest order.” Her introduction was short,[4] likely because she was about to helm the Q&A portion of the event. After this, Justice Breyer was presented with the medal and proceeded to show it to everyone like, and I am quoting EIC Lake here, “an absolute grandpa.” He very clearly did not write his speech of acceptance and was simply having a good time.[5] The only thing he memorized was his recitation of the Gettysburg Address and the introduction to the Declaration of Independence, presented effectively with a story about his grandchildren. The thing is, though, his speech worked. The whole room was with him the entire time. The main message he gave was one that seemed to stick with everyone. He emphasized two themes from those two famous documents: ideals and experiment. Justice Breyer, in his own optimistic way, is aware that our nation does not live up to the ideals espoused in the Declaration. But at the end of his speech, he left everyone with a quote that I think summarizes his view best: “My friends, it is you who will decide if the experiment will continue.”
After a brief statement by Leslie Bowman, the president of the Jefferson Foundation, the Q&A portion of the event led by Dean Goluboff began. I could spend a long time giving you a full recitation of the questions asked by the Dean and various students, combined with the answers we heard from Justice Breyer. But if you want that, I recommend you go watch the entire event on YouTube; I promise that it is absolutely worth it.[6]Instead, I’ll give you a few answers that have stuck with me the most—I am the author of this article, after all. On the political system, Justice Breyer remarked that, “The Constitution sets a process to create basically a democratic system in order to decide what [we want] at the ballot box.” He noted that the legacy of Brown v. Board can be summarized as a decision leading to a nation of 330 million people that can one day respect each other as people. He cited specifically a conversation with Vernon Jordan to say that the Court helped with that decision but that they didn’t do it alone; desegregation was moved forward by regular people. Despite sidestepping a question about Roe, Justice Breyer went out of his way to note that action is required by the people in keeping the experiment going.
I think most of the crowd, regardless of their views of the man, can respect that he did not become a cynic after many years of public service. In honor of that, I leave with you the quote I think he would like everyone to see the most, even if most of you might be a little too cynical to agree with it: “We do what we can do. Listening, talking, and by no means shutting down people who disagree. Participate. [There are] lots of ways to convince people, but never shut those people off…Stay together. Worry is something to keep to yourself…Be a positive force, and find something you agree with [in the people that disagree with you]. And use it. Be upset at home. But when you are out, [help].”
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omk6cg@virginia.edu
[1] After our fearless leader lobbied the administration. She just really wanted to keep with the theme of political action.
[2] He was escorting them, so it’s a good guess.
[3] @Secret Service, aren’t you glad I didn’t pull an Abed from Community and try to meet the Justice?
[4] Please don’t kick me out of school, Dean Goluboff; this was unintentional.
[5] I don’t blame him; he doesn’t have clerks to make write for him anymore.
[6] Here’s a link, too: https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/202204/american-experiment-launched-jefferson-goes-says-justice-breyer.