Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 14, 1994 TAG: 9405160150
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Medium
``Steve was the dominant personality,'' recalled Norman Dorsen, a law professor at New York University. ``He led the conversation, drew it to issues he wanted to discuss. He was a very potent person.''
Those who know the Supreme Court nominee have similar descriptions of the federal judge: a brilliant legal scholar with a playful intellect and a winning personality.
``He will be the best lawyer on the court,'' said Alan Dershowitz, a colleague of Breyer's at Harvard Law School. ``When I had tough legal problems, I would often go to him for sage advice. He's a wise man.''
Perhaps more important to President Clinton is his easy acceptance within various streams of Washington ideology. As former chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and a federal judge for 12 years, he is a known, well-respected commodity.
Breyer is a man of interesting angles. Friends and colleagues say he supports a woman's right to choose abortion. He has a reputation of being hard on criminals who bring appeals to his court.
He is a supporter of free speech, ruling against the Bush administration's ban on abortion counseling at federally funded clinics. But in matters of commerce, he is more to a conservative's liking: in his specialty, administrative law, he has advocated a hands-off approach of government to business. As counsel to a Senate subcommittee, he helped engineer the deregulation of the airline industry.
If there is any immediate hint of controversy, it is Breyer's work on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which developed federal sentencing and parole guidelines now hated by many judges and prosecutors.
While Breyer has defended the system, friends say his role was one of conciliator.
``Steve was a moderating force,'' Harvard law professor Lawrence Tribe said.
He has established a solid record since he was named to the bench in 1980, earning praise. Gary Katzman, a former Breyer law clerk now in the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston, credits the judge with a ``tremendous capacity for work.''
``He is a person who seems to be interested in the world around him,'' Katzman said. ``That's reflected by a tremendous curiosity that he has. You see that in his academic work.''
If there is any criticism, it is of Breyer's rooting in the academic world. Lawyers quoted in the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary fault the judge for too scholarly an approach.
``He has the intellect to be a truly great jurist, but his lack of understanding of the real world hurts him - and hurts us, too,'' one attorney said.
But friends disagree. Peter Fishbein, a New York trial lawyer, cites Breyer's involvement with Boston politicians and community groups in the planning of a new federal courthouse.
``He's not someone who sits behind the bench and reads books,'' Fishbein said. ``If you were going to pick someone to sit around a bar and have interesting conversations, Steve's that kind of a guy.''
Breyer was a finalist last year before Clinton named Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, until the disclosure that he had failed to pay Social Security taxes for a household worker. He did pay back taxes for the 81-year-old woman when he learned it was necessary, and leading senators and some women's groups said then that it would endanger his confirmation.
\ Stephen G. Breyer
Age: 55
Education: Stanford University, Oxford Univerity, Harvard Law School.
Experience: First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge since 1980, former professor at Harvard Law School.
Family: Married, three children.
Quote: "I've always thought that 20 or 30 years from now, people will not remember a word I've written."
by CNB