“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 did not specifically mention those incidents in his speech, but he did cite 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.
