Justice Stephen Breyer Officially Retires After Nearly Three Decades in Supreme Court

Justice Stephen Breyer has officially retired.

The 83-year-old justice stepped down from the Supreme Court as of noon on Thursday (June 30) after nearly 30 years of service as an associate justice.

The justice, who was appointed to the Court by President Bill Clinton in 1994, first began his career as a law clerk for Justice Arthur Goldberg, going on to be an administrative law professor at Harvard Law, counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and an appellate judge for nearly 14 years, via People.

During his confirmation hearings, he vowed to “remember that the decisions I help to make will have an effect upon the lives of many, many Americans.”

Justice Breyer ruled against restricting the right to access abortion, and just recently authored a dissent to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned federal abortion rights protections.

He is to be succeeded by Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was confirmed by the Senate back in April.