Breyer reflects on Supreme Court career at talk in Lincoln

An enthusiastic crowd of more than 400 people gathered at the headquarters of the Walden Woods Project in Lincoln on May 30 to hear historian and CNN commentator Douglas Brinkley engage in conversation with retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

Three Lincoln-based organizations — Lincoln250, the Bemis Free Lecture Series, and the Lincoln Historical Society — co-sponsored the event, which was free and open to the public thanks to a grant from the Ogden Codman Trust.

Breyer, 86, touched on his childhood career dreams growing up in San Francisco (“I thought I wanted to be a baseball player in the summer and a garbage collector in the winter”), American books that give the flavor of a time and place (the autobiographical Education of Henry Adams, The Professor’s House by Willa Cather, and The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton), and his favorite movies — heavy on 1930s screwball comedies but also “Groundhog Day.”

Much of the discussion centered on topics featured in Justice Breyer’s new book, Reading The Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism. At times he shared humorous and sometimes poignant anecdotes about his former Supreme Court colleagues and their deliberations.

When considering a case before the court, “You read the words. If the words are clear, just follow what they say, but words are never clear, so you look to other things. What’s the purpose [of a law]? What mischief was Congress trying to cure? What will happen if you decide this this way or that way? Is it consistent with the values that are still there in this little book, or the other values that Americans hold?” he said, holding up his pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution.

The ideal outcome for a Supreme Court decision, Breyer said, is to give “a better chance of directing, we hope, that the interpretation helps people live together who are affected by it peacefully and productively, at least some of the time.”

Attendees were also treated to the first public viewing of the introduction to a new film, currently in production, entitled “Henry David Thoreau.” The three-hour documentary, executive produced by Ken Burns and Walden Woods Project founder Don Henley, is slated to air on PBS in the spring of 2026. It chronicles the life and legacy of Henry David Thoreau through the narration of George Clooney and the voices of Meryl Streep (Margaret Fuller at al.), Jeff Goldblum (Thoreau), and Ted Danson (Emerson).

A video of the hourlong event is available on the Walden Woods Project’s website.