Breyer penned some of the court's most notable opinions in the term that ended last summer. He wrote the majority opinion thwarting the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act, concluding that the conservative states that sued over its mandate that most Americans obtain insurance did not have standing to sue. He also wrote the court's opinion in a major First Amendment case, siding with a former student who was punished for a vulgar social media post aimed at her school.
Breyer wrote that it "might be tempting" to dismiss the student's profanity-laced post as unworthy of the First Amendment's protection.
"But sometimes," he added, "it is necessary to protect the superfluous in order to preserve the necessary."
Breyer, a California native and Harvard Law graduate, is the court's most vocal opponent of the concept of "originalism" espoused by the late Justice Antonin Scalia –the idea that jurists interpret the Constitution based on its meaning at the time it was written. Breyer instead embraced the idea of a "living" document that allows courts to give a more dynamic reading when it's not clear what the framers had in mind.
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