NEWS
EVENT: Noëlle Lenoir attended the ceremony where President Macron awarded the title of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor to Stephen Breyer, former US Supreme Court Justice
On October 31, 2022, President Macron awarded the title of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor to Stephen Breyer, former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who decided to retire from the Court to make way for the first black woman - Ketanji Brown Jackson - to serve on the High Court. This is a strong symbol and an addition to the Court, as well as a great loss due to Justice Breyer's departure on June 30, 2022. During his 28-year term of office at the Court, he has constantly raised the level of the Court to the highest level of competence and exemplarity. His dedication to democracy led him to write several books, some in collaboration with Robert Badinter, former President of the Constitutional Council.
As the President of the Republic pointed out in his address, Stephen Breyer has also distinguished himself - a rare occurrence in the U.S. Supreme Court - by his international openness, sharing this approach with his equally famous colleague, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Bridging the gap between the different legal systems of the major democracies, he has promoted a totally innovative comparative approach on the U.S. Supreme Court. His attachment to France, its model and its literature makes him one of the Americans most familiar with our culture. It is through Proust, Voltaire, Montesquieu and many others that he learned the French that he practices every day, as the President indicated in his speech, while recalling Stephen Breyer's literary affinities.
Last but not least, Stephen Breyer was a pragmatic judge whose democratic reflexes led him throughout his judicial career to practice "judicial modesty" or "self-restraint" which is sometimes so lacking in our judicial system. Another remarkable feature is that in a country like the United States where racial divides remain significant, he has always argued that the law should not accentuate them. In several landmark cases, such as the Grutter V. Bollinger on June 23, 2003, he refused to validate the principle of positive discrimination based on race in educational institutions. This position brings him even closer to France and its constitutional model which refutes communitarianism. A friend of France, an immense jurist, an "honest man" in the philosophical sense of the term, a scholar, a fervent defender of democracy and a personal friend, Stephen Breyer richly deserved to be recognized by the French Republic. Between his courses at Harvard, his many conferences, his presidency of the jury of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, his mandate as a member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, not to mention his continuing ties with France, Stephen Breyer is entering a new phase in the continuity of the values he has always upheld.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Noëlle Lenoir Avocats
28 boulevard Raspail
75007 PARIS
+33 1 45 44 67 16
contact@noellelenoir-avocats.com
Noêlle Lenoir Avocats ©2020 All rights reserved