Breyer praises Merhige at UR law school ceremony

Credit: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, appearing at the University of Richmond School of Law, cited desegregation orders by U.S. District Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr. as great but unpopular rulings.

Scalia to speak

Justice Antonin Scalia will be the keynote luncheon speaker at the Bar Association of the City of Richmond's 20th annual Bench-Bar Conference at the Omni Richmond Hotel on Oct. 13.

A Harvard...

Scalia to speak

Justice Antonin Scalia will be the keynote luncheon speaker at the Bar Association of the City of Richmond's 20th annual Bench-Bar Conference at the Omni Richmond Hotel on Oct. 13.

A Harvard Law School graduate, he entered private practice in Ohio in 1961 and was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982. He joined the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986.

From staff reports

By: ASSOCIATED PRESS | The Associated Press
Published: October 06, 2011
Updated: October 06, 2011 - 10:32 PM

RICHMOND, Va. --

Unlike politicians, judges cannot let popularity influence their decisions, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer said Thursday.

"Congress is the expert on popularity," Breyer told an invitation-only gathering of lawyers, judges and academics at the University of Richmond School of Law.

Breyer spoke at a ceremony dedicating the law school's moot courtroom in memory of the late U.S. District Judge Robert R. Merhige Jr., whose orders to desegregate Virginia's public schools in the early 1970s were highly unpopular among some whites. Merhige required 24-hour security for a while. A cottage on his property was burned, and his dog was killed.

Breyer cited the 1957 Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis as an example of the courts — and in this case, President Dwight D. Eisenhower — taking a stand that was unpopular among some at the time. After Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus defied court orders to integrate, Eisenhower sent federal troops to escort nine black students into the school.

"It was a great day for the rule of law, a great day for equality, a great day for the United States," Breyer said, noting that other breakthroughs in the civil rights movement followed.

In a brief interview after the speech, Breyer said people sometimes mistake a judge's "judicial approach" for politics or ideology. He said that by middle age, a judge has views shaped by the entirety of his or her experiences that will guide the judge's deliberations.

"In respect to that, you can't jump out of your own skin — and you shouldn't," he said.

Breyer was appointed to the court in 1994 by President Bill Clinton and usually aligns with the more liberal members of the court.

Asked about Merhige, Breyer said it was appropriate for the law school to name the moot courtroom in his honor.

"He was great. He stood up for equal protection under the law," Breyer said. Merhige received his law degree from the University of Richmond and served as a federal judge for 31 years.

Mark Merhige of Richmond, the younger of the judge's two sons, said the honor "means the world to us."

"I can think of nothing that touches closer to home," Merhige said. "Next to sitting on the bench, the classroom was his favorite place to be — and the moot courtroom was his classroom."