Latino legal advocates on Breyers' legacy: 'A consistent voice for fairness'

Latino advocacy groups, lawmakers and scholars had nothing but praise for Justice Stephen Breyer, the great-grandson of immigrants from Romania, after he announced his retirement from the Supreme Court on Thursday.

“I think he was a moderate liberal who could be counted on to come out on the right way on a lot of cases that affected Latinos,” said Kevin R. Johnson, the dean of the University of California Davis School of Law, who is of Mexican American heritage.

“Breyer is a consistent voice for moderation, fairness, and he has an international perspective that some of the other justices don’t have,” Johnson said. In 2016, Breyer addressed 32 judges from across Latin America as part of a Department of Justice judicial training program held in Puerto Rico.