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''When the call comes, we answer''.

Article Excerpt
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and Kenneth Feinberg, special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, addressed Trial Lawyers Care volunteers and clients at ATLA's 2004 annual convention. This excerpt of their remarks is edited from the transcript of the event.

David Casey Jr. ATLA immediate past president

By tradition, the junior justice on the Supreme Court is in charge of answering the door during conferences. Other than the nine justices, no one enters that room. For a decade, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer has been answering that door.... If I were a young clerk or intern standing outside that door, I don't think I'd have the nerve to knock. But it does happen.

Not too long ago, somebody did knock on that door, and Justice Breyer

answered. [The fellow] handed Justice Breyer a cup of coffee and asked him to deliver it to Justice Scalia. Justice Breyer walked over, gave it to Scalia, and said, "You know, I'm getting pretty good at this. "And Scalia scowled at him and said, "No you're not. "

I have no way of knowing who's right on this question of his skills as a waiter. I am, however, in a position to assess his contribution as a jurist.... Justice Breyer unfailingly serves up an independent view on this Court. His is a unique and vitally important voice that recognizes the compelling interest we should have for the individual citizen. I'm thinking specifically of Justice Breyer's powerful dissent in the Court's three-strikes decision that upheld life imprisonment as a man's sentence for stealing a golf club.

Justice Breyer ... gives us, and every litigant, a fair, informed hearing. We can ask for no more.

Justice Stephen Breyer

I'm honored to be invited here for this occasion. I'll explain why it means a great deal to me, professionally and personally. I often tell students, "I'd like you to imagine me sitting on the side of the courtroom, looking out across the room where Brown v. Board of Education and so many other important cases were...