Charles Roberts Breyer (born November 3, 1941) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Breyer served as chairman of the

United States Sentencing Commission The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent agency of the judicial branch of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for articulating the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the federal courts. The Commission promulgat ...

from 2018 to 2022.

Early life and career

Breyer was born in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. He is the younger brother of

Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer ( ; born August 15, 1938) is a retired American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 until his retirement in 2022. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and re ...

, who served as a justice of the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

from 1994 to 2022. Breyer and his older brother Stephen were active in the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth partici ...

and achieved the

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

rank. Breyer attended Lowell High School. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher ...

in 1963 and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1966. He was a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to Judge Oliver Carter of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California from 1966 to 1967. He was a Counsel,

Legal Aid Society The Legal Aid Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit legal aid provider based in New York City. Founded in 1876, it is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Its attorneys provide representation on criminal and civil ma ...

in 1967, and was then an assistant district attorney for the City & County of

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for "Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, from 1967 to 1973. Breyer was an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force from 1973 to 1974, and then entered private practice in San Francisco from 1974 to 1997, interrupted by a brief stint as chief assistant district attorney of the City and County of San Francisco in 1979.

Federal judicial service

On July 24, 1997, Breyer was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (Birth name, né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 ...

to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California vacated by D. Lowell Jensen. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and ...

on November 8, 1997, and received his commission on November 12, 1997. He took senior status on December 31, 2011. He served as a Member of the United States Judicial Conference from 2006 to 2010. He has served as a Member of the United States

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (J.P.M.L. or the Panel) is a special body within the United States federal court system which manages multidistrict litigation. It was established by Congress in 1968 by , and has ...

since 2011. He served as Vice Chair of the

from 2013 to 2016 and as a Member of the same commission since 2017.

Notable cases

Breyer presided over the

Ed Rosenthal Edward "Ed" Rosenthal (born December 2, 1944) is an American horticulturist, author, publisher, and ''Cannabis'' grower known for his advocacy for the legalization of marijuana use. He served as a columnist for ''High Times Magazine'' during the ...

trial in 2007, in Rosenthal's federal prosecution for distribution of marijuana for medical use. This case was controversial because Breyer sentenced Rosenthal, who faced a possible sentence of one hundred years for growing marijuana, to just one day in prison. He also presided over the stock-options backdating trial of

Brocade Communications Systems Brocade is an American technology company specializing in storage networking products, now a subsidiary of Broadcom Inc. The company is known for its Fibre Channel storage networking products and technology. Prior to the acquisition, the comp ...

CEO

Gregory Reyes Gregory Reyes (born September 1, 1962) is an American businessman who most recently served as the chief executive officer (CEO) for Brocade Communications. He is the first person to have been convicted for fraudulent backdating of corporate stock ...

in 2007. In 2014, he ruled against the City of San Francisco's legislation to protect tenants from Ellis Act evictions. He presided over the 2014 criminal case involving San Francisco police theft and racist texting, in which his court order was blamed for the delay in releasing information. Following the

Volkswagen emissions scandal The Volkswagen emissions scandal, sometimes known as Dieselgate or Emissionsgate, began in September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker V ...

, Breyer had approved $16.5 billion settlement for US consumers. Volkswagen agreed to redeem an estimated of 475,000 polluting 2.0 diesel automobiles in the US.

Personal life

Breyer is the brother of former

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

Justice

. Breyer and his older brother Stephen were active in the

and achieved the

rank. Justice Breyer has recused himself from appeals of cases tried by his brother, including ''

Olympic Airways v. Husain ''Olympic Airways v. Husain'', 540 U.S. 644 (2004), was a United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) case related to Olympic Airways Flight 417. The case arose from the death on 4 January 1998 of Dr. Abid Hanson, a passenger on Olympic Airways Flight 41 ...

'', ''Department of Housing and Urban Development v. Rucker'', ''

United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative In ''United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative'', 532 U.S. 483 (2001), the United States Supreme Court rejected the common-law medical necessity defense to crimes enacted under the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970, regardle ...

'', '' Monsanto Co. v. Geertson Seed Farms'', ''Amgen, Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds'' and ''City and County of San Francisco v. Sheehan''. Breyer was married to the late Sidney Goldstein,Sydney Goldstein
/ref> who founded City Arts & Lectures in San Francisco in 1980 and for whom the Nourse Theater was renamed in her honor after her death in 2018.

References

External links