05/17/94

CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558

Breyer would make fourth Stanford graduate on Supreme Court

STANFORD -- Judge Stephen G. Breyer, whom President Clinton nominated for the Supreme Court on Friday, May 13, graduated from Stanford with great distinction in 1959. He is currently chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fi st Circuit in Boston.

Breyer, 55, originally from San Francisco, majored in philosophy at Stanford before studying at Oxford and graduating from Harvard Law School. While here, he was a member of Delta Sigma Rho, a national honorary speech and debat e fraternity and co-chair of the Foreign Scholars Commission, which was a student organization to assist foreign students in their transition to Stanford.

Breyer's nomination was praised by Stanford law Professors Gerald Gunther and Kathleen Sullivan, both of whom taught with him at Harvard.

"He knows how to build consensus, which this court badly needs," Gunther said. "I think this court has had an emerging centrist majority" of Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter and now Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Gunther said, and Breyer could provide leadership.

Sullivan said that Breyer is "someone that Justice [Antonin] Scalia is going to have to respect as his liberal counterpart on the court."

If confirmed, Breyer will be the fourth Stanford graduate on the court. The others are Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy.

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