“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether this nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure,” former President Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address on Nov 19, 1863.
In other words, the Constitution “is an experiment,” former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer said during his lecture at Cary Hall on Saturday. “We can’t be sure it will work.”
Breyer said he tells students they have to be the ones who will decide whether the experiment works or doesn’t.
“Is that important?” he asked. “Yes, it could hardly be more important.”
Breyer stopped through Lexington last week to give a lecture on his new book, “Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism” as a part of the Cary Lecture Series. The event packed just about all 800-plus seats in the auditorium.
Breyer was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and served for 28 years. Now, he teaches at Harvard Law School.
Saturday’s lecture included a long discussion between Breyer and Rita Goldberg, a member of the Cary Lecture Series, about pragmatic reading of the Constitution. Breyer also took questions from audience members, young and old.
To kickstart the lecture, Breyer shared what textualism is according to his late friend and colleague, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Breyer said Scalia told him he chose textualism because it’s easy, it allows the law to be interpreted the same way across the country, it makes congress happy because they know what will happen to their statute, and it stops judges from substituting what they think is good for the law.
Scalia’s fourth point is where textualists bump heads with pragmatists.
If you have a child and the child has some kind of a problem, their school has to give them special support, Breyer explained as an example. If, as a parent, you don’t feel the school is doing that, you can sue them. If the court says that you, the parent, “are entitled to your costs,” the next question becomes, what costs?
In that example, Breyer argued, the word “costs” is too ambiguous for a textualist to decide its meaning, so interpretation must be used. Enter, pragmatism.
While many judges told Breyer pragmatism is too difficult a method to use to interpret the Constitution, Breyer finds it both possible and valuable. Being pragmatic means you must listen to the perspectives of all, not just those who agree with your views. Breyer learned a lot about that while working with Ted Kennedy when he was a Massachusetts senator.
“Kennedy would say, if you get 30 percent, take it, don’t hold out for 100 percent so all your normal followers say what a genius you are when you got nothing,” Breyer said. “Many times, a reporter would say, ‘Senator Kennedy, you did so well on that bill’, and he would say, don’t thank me, thank Orrin Hatch, the Republican.”
Breyer carried Kennedy’s lesson throughout his career on the Supreme Court and continues to teach it to his students and the crowds he lectures to, as he did at Cary Hall on Saturday.
The best way to help the Constitution work is to “find someone who you disagree with and talk to them,” he said.
After his lecture, Breyer took some questions from the audience.
Asked what advice he can give to young people on how to deal with the nation’s problems by a seventh-grade Girl Scout from Lexington, Breyer urged her to vote and participate in public life.
Following his lecture, Breyer signed copies of his new book in Cary Hall.
Breyer’s lecture, and a few other talks Cary Hall hosts throughout the year, are put on as part of the Cary Lecture Series. The Series is funded by the wills of sisters and Lexington benefactors, Eliza Cary Farnham and Suzanna E. Cary. The goal of the Series is to stimulate, educate, and entertain the general public without charge.
With 100 percent support, Lexington’s Town Meeting passed a motion allowing the town to appoint a committee of four people to be in charge of the Cary Lecture Series for the next year, effectively allowing the program to live on for at least another year.
Dr. Anna Michel, associate scientist of applied ocean physics and engineering at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, will give a lecture on Sept. 20.
On Nov. 1, Jessica Lander, a teacher at Lowell High School, and De’ Shawn Washington, a teacher at the Maria Hastings School in Lexington, both of whom have been awarded Massachusetts Teacher of the Year in recent years, will speak about the joy of teaching.
On May 2, 2026, Raney Aronson-Rath, executive producer of PBS Frontline and Lexington resident, will talk about her career and the importance of an independent press.
Goldberg and her colleagues are working to finalize another speaker, likely for April of 2026.
Thanks for providing coverage of this important event. One recommended correction: Justice Breyer worked for Senator Edward Kennedy who famously strove to reach compromise with Senator Hatch.
Thanks for this excellent account of Justice Breyer’s lecture and Q&A.