Justice Breyer Defends Judge Accused of Defying Supreme Court Order

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Justice Breyer Defends Judge Accused of Defying Supreme Court Order

The justice’s comments reflected tensions within the judiciary, as trial judges struggle to interpret the Supreme Court’s often cryptic emergency orders.


Former Justice Stephen Breyer in 2021. Erin Schaff/The New York Times

By Adam Liptak
Reporting from Washington
Sept. 6, 2025

Justice Stephen G. Breyer on Saturday defended a judge accused of defying a Supreme Court ruling, saying in an interview that he knew the judge to be scrupulously honest and respectful of higher courts.

Justice Breyer, who retired from the court in 2022, has avoided criticism of his former colleagues. He declined on Saturday to directly address Justice Neil M. Gorsuch’s concurring opinion last month accusing Judge William G. Young, of the Federal District Court in Boston, of ignoring a binding precedent.

But that opinion plainly prompted Justice Breyer’s decision to step forward with rare public comments in praise of Judge Young as model jurist whose rulings he had often reviewed during his 14 years as an appeals court judge in Boston.

“I never saw an instance where he would deliberately defy a controlling opinion or legal statement from our court or from the Supreme Court,” Justice Breyer said. “I never even had an instinct or a guess or a hunch or anything that he was doing anything like that deliberately.”

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Adam Liptak covers the Supreme Court and writes Sidebar, a column on legal developments. A graduate of Yale Law School, he practiced law for 14 years before joining The Times in 2002.

[Lonestarblue]

1. Judges with integrity who believe in the law can't support this Supreme Court's irrational decisions for Trump.

More respected judges need to speak out as Breyer has done.