Retired US Supreme Court Justice Breyer to sit with appeals court in January

By Nate Raymond

Dec 30 (Reuters) - Retired liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to kick off 2025 by doing something he has not done in over two years: hear cases, this time as a visiting judge on the federal appeals court in Boston.

The Boston-based 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in a calendar released on Monday revealed that Breyer, 86, will serve as a member of three-judge panels hearing appeals arising out of cases litigated in New England, marking the first time he has done so since stepping down from the Supreme Court in June 2022.

The nine cases he will hear include a challenge to Bar Harbor, Maine's limits on cruise ship passenger visits and a former Haitian mayor's appeal of a jury's verdict requiring him to pay $15.5 million over allegations he led a brutal campaign to kill and torture his political opponents.

Those cases are slated to be argued on Jan. 8 and 9 before two different panels, allowing Breyer to sit alongside four different judges, including Chief U.S. Circuit Judge David Barron, who will be on the Jan. 8 panel.

Breyer did not respond to a request for comment submitted through the Supreme Court. The 1st Circuit declined to comment.

Breyer, who stepped down from the Supreme Court in June 2022 following the confirmation of President Joe Biden's nominee to succeed him, Ketanji Brown Jackson, first revealed plans to sit as a visiting judge on the 1st Circuit in April.

"I'm a judge. If you take senior status, you remain a judge. And not only you remain a judge in terms of status, but probably next fall I will go over and sit with the 1st Circuit,” Breyer said during a podcast episode of "Politics War Room with James Carville & Al Hunt."

Before being appointed to the Supreme Court by Democratic former President Bill Clinton, Breyer had been a judge on the 1st Circuit, which he was appointed to by Democratic former President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Carter died on Sunday at the age of 100.

By sitting with the 1st Circuit as a retired Supreme Court justice, Breyer would be following in the footsteps of his friend and former colleague David Souter, a New Hampshire native who after leaving the Supreme Court in 2009 frequently sat as a visiting judge on the court. He last did so in March 2020.

The 1st Circuit hears appeals from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico and Rhode Island. It is the smallest of the 13 federal appeals courts. It has five active judges all appointed by Democratic presidents and one vacancy.

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(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York)

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