Judge Breyer to Receive the Highest U.S. Judicial Honor Award
Judge Charles R. Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California will be the recipient of the prestigious 34th Annual Devitt Award, said to be the highest honor bestowed upon a Article III federal judge.
The ceremony and celebration will take place on November 7, 2018 at the Supreme Court of the United States in the presence of the Supreme Court Justices and 100 invited guests. As brother of Justice Stephen Breyer, this is the first time that a relation of any Justice of the Supreme Court will receive the Devitt.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy chaired this year’s selection committee which included Judge Raymond Kethledge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
The committee deliberated over two days in New York City along with the award sponsor, the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation executives.
After attending college at Harvard and law school at Berkley, Judge Breyer entered public service, joining the Army Reserve and working as a line prosecutor in the San Francisco attorney’s office.
In 1973 he joined the Watergate Special Prosecution Force in Washington and then returned to San Francisco where he went into private practice. In 1998, he was appointed as a district judge in the Northern District of California.
Photo courtesy: The Dwight D. Opperman Foundation
