Breyer pulled out a copy of the Constitution from his coat pocket, noting that some countries are held together by shared memories, and some by a document.
“I believe this is the document. That’s it,” he said.
Breyer has been an associate justice on the court since 1994, after being nominated by President Bill Clinton. Prior to that, Breyer was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, a professor at Harvard Law School, and served in federal government in various roles.
Breyer’s “belief in deliberation and the importance of relationships have made him the ‘glue’ among his colleagues,” Goluboff said in her introduction. “And his commitment to the court’s unique role in the American constitutional scheme has made him its greatest institutional champion.”
She added, “Justice Breyer will be remembered as a statesman of the highest order, whose gifts and service have redounded to the extraordinary benefit of the Supreme Court and this nation.”
Sponsored jointly by the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns and operates Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals are awarded each year to recognize the achievements of those who embrace endeavors in which Jefferson – author of the Declaration of Independence, third U.S. president and founder of the University – excelled and held in high regard. The law medal, and its counterparts in architecture, citizen leadership and global innovation, are UVA’s highest external honors.
The medals are given annually as part of Founder’s Day activities at the University and Monticello, timed to coincide with Jefferson’s birthday on April 13.
Thomas Jefferson Foundation President Leslie Greene Bowman also delivered remarks at the event, recalling Jefferson’s words to a fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, Edward Rutledge, encouraging him to seek national office.
“There is a debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to the bounties which nature and fortune have measured to him,” Jefferson wrote.
Bowman added, “Justice Breyer, you have paid that debt of service, many times over, so much so that the debt now owed is one of gratitude to you by our country, and we, your fellow citizens.”