I'm Alan Alder and this is Clear In vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

Once you put on that rope, once you become a judge and you think this often you're not

a judge for the Democrats. You're not a judge for the Republicans. And that's an important

point because I think all those nine people around the table believe that it's a great privilege

to be in that job, a huge privilege and an honor. And you're there for 331 million people,

even if half of them really disagree with you when you make a certain decision, they

may disagree, but you're still there for them.

That's Stephen Breyer, who has been an associate justice of the Supreme Court since 1994.

He has a new book that's very timely called The Authority of the Court and the Peral of

Politics. In that book he writes about the often precarious path the court took to establish

and to hold on to its ability to act as a check on the other branches of government and

how he feels that hard one authority may now be endangered all over again. I am so glad

to be talking with you today. Thank you for making the time. This is just great. And I think

you'll be relieved and I'm not going to ask you that question that everybody seems to

be asking you because I've heard your answer many times about your retirement plans.

And actually I think this really interesting book you've written gives an answer in depth

without literally answering the question. Do you think I'm sort of on the right track

there? Yes, but I mean it's a personal matter whether you actually retire. You shouldn't,

I mean there are like thousands of different, not thousands, but many different factors.

And one of them could be your replacement, but I don't know that it's the major one. You

have to think of the institution. Well, the reason I said that is the title of the book

I think is literally the meat of the book, the authority of the court and the peril of

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