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Breyer Says Democrats Shouldn’t Remake Supreme Court Just to Get Back at Trump

The Supreme Court justice told NPR: “What goes around comes around. And if the Democrats can do it, the Republicans can do it.”

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has warned Democrats against making attempts to remake the court in the wake of the chaos of the Trump presidency, telling NPR: “What goes around comes around. And if the Democrats can do it, the Republicans can do it.” Breyer, 83, spoke to the radio network to promote his new book, The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics. He reportedly said that American citizens have a habit of accepting Supreme Court decisions—even when they don’t agree with them—and radically changing the court could endanger that. Breyer cited ex-Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid’s comments about Bush v. Gore, when the court effectively ruled that George W. Bush won the 2000 presidential election. “He said the most remarkable thing about this case is, even though probably half the country didn’t like it at all, and it was totally wrong, in his opinion and in mine, people followed it, and they didn’t throw brickbats at each other and they didn’t have riots,” Breyer said.