"Exploring America’s Founding Principles and his Upcoming Memoir"

SHOW NOTES: In this episode of The Blessings of Liberty, Justice Stephen Breyer, retired associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, joins to discuss our republic’s Founding principles, the First Amendment, and the Pursuit of Happiness. He also gives us a preview of his upcoming memoir and his foreword for the NCC’s new volume, The Promise of America: Reflections on Our Enduring Ideals. Jeffrey Rosen, senior fellow at FIRE and CEO Emeritus of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

Participants

Stephen Breyer served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022 and is currently the Byrne Professor of Administrative Law and Process at Harvard Law School. He is also one of the co-chairs of the NCC and wrote the foreword for the NCC’s new volume, The Promise of America: Reflections on Our Enduring Ideals, a collection of essays exploring America’s founding principles.

Jeffrey Rosen is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and CEO Emeritus of the National Constitution Center. He is also a professor of law at the George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.

Additional Resources

• Stephen Breyer, Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism (2024)
• National Constitution Center, The Promise of America: Reflections on Our Enduring Ideals (2026)
• Jeffrey Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America (2024)

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Thank you to our presenting sponsor, FIRE, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans—especially freedom of speech and free thought. Through legal advocacy, education, and public awareness, FIRE helps protect open debate and a culture where ideas can be challenged instead of silenced. Learn more about FIRE’s work at FIRE.org/blessings.