Joe Biden, U.S. President: “Today, Justice Breyer announces his intention to step down from active service after four decades, four decades on the federal bench and 28 years on the United States Supreme Court. His legacy includes his work as a leading scholar and jurist in administrative law, bringing his brilliance to bear to make government run more efficiently and effectively, and includes his stature as a beacon of wisdom on our Constitution and what it means. And through it all Justice Breyer has worked tirelessly to give faith to the notion that the law exists to help the people. Everyone knows that Stephen Breyer has been an exemplary justice. Fair to the parties before him, courteous to his colleagues, careful in his reasoning. He’s written landmark opinions on topics ranging from reproductive rights to health care, to voting rights, to patent law, to laws protecting our environment and the laws to protect our religious practices. His opinions are practical, sensible and nuanced. They reflect his belief that a job of a judge is not to lay down a rule, but to get it right, to get it right.”

Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court Justice: “This is a complicated country. There are more than 330 million people my mother used to say it’s every race, it’s every religion, and she would emphasize this, and it’s every point of view possible. And it’s a kind of miracle when you sit there and see all those people in front of you, people that are so different in what they think. And yet they’ve decided to help solve their major differences under law. And when the students get too cynical, I say, go, go, look at what happens in countries that don’t do that. And that’s their, I take this around in my pocket. People have come to accept this Constitution and they’ve come to accept the importance of the rule of law.”

Joe Biden, U.S. President: “Choosing someone to sit on the Supreme Court, I believe, is one of the most serious constitutional responsibility a president has. Our process is going to be rigorous. I will select a nominee worthy of Justice Breyer’s legacy of excellence and decency. While I’ve been studying candidates’ backgrounds and writings, I’ve made no decision except one. The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue, in my view. I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment.”