In an interview that aired Thursday on CNN’s “New Day,” Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer sounded off on the ongoing push from Democrats for him to retire while President Joe Biden is in office.
Breyer said the calls for him to retire do not “irk him” because people have the First Amendment right to say what they want.
“That doesn’t irk me,” Breyer told CNN’s Joan Biskupic. “I’ll tell you. The truth, I think, is … you can always hope for your more mature self, which is there sometimes. And this is a country in which, and every day I see this in this document, but number one, it is called freedom of speech. That means freedom of thought, freedom of expression.”
Biskupic interrupted by saying the push must drive him “nuts.”
“I was thinking of Harry Truman. If it’s too hot, get out of the kitchen, or something like that,” Breyer replied.
“It’s far from the worst thing in the world to have people say mean things or nice things or this thing or that thing about you,” he added. “And really, if you’re not prepared, of course, people will get upset about all kinds of things. That’s why we have this First Amendment. We have it there so people will say things that you might not like and that I might not like. That’s why it’s there.”
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