Author: Victoria Kwan

The justices logged 174 events in the 2016 calendar year, seven of which took place in December.

The Supreme Court justices had a light extracurricular schedule this December – with the exception of Justice Stephen Breyer, who remained active on the speaking circuit.

[caption id="attachment_248612" align="aligncenter" width="509"] As in prior terms, the majority of the justices’ events during October Term 2016 take place in the Washington area.[/caption] The Supreme Court’s days as an eight-member court may soon be drawing to a close. As the country awaits president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the vacancy, the sitting justices who participated in post-election speaking engagements faced questions about the election’s impact on the court. In a November 15 appearance at the Hill Center in Washington, interviewer Bill Press asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor whether she felt apprehensive about last Tuesday’s result. “I’m going to demur from answering that question that way,” Sotomayor said cautiously. “I will answer it in a different way, which is – I think that this is the time where every good person has an obligation both to continue being heard and continue doing the right thing.” Sotomayor urged the audience not to give in to despair or to give up on “pursuing the values that we and others have fought so hard to achieve,” characterizing the situation as a “challenge we all have to face.”

Picking up where the last SCOTUS Map left off: Justice Anthony Kennedy gave the keynote speech at the International Bar Association’s Rule of Law Symposium on September 23, where he told audience members that a judge’s willingness to re-examine prior premises is “not a sign of weakness of your judicial philosophy,” but “a sign of fidelity to your judicial oath.” Kennedy expressed disappointment at the current political climate in the United States, saying, “Half the world is looking at us. They’re watching. They’re waiting. And what do they see? They see a civil discourse that's hostile, fractious.” Coverage comes from the Associated Press and the National Law Journal. [caption id="attachment_247740" align="aligncenter" width="547"] The map of OT 2016 speaking engagements includes 27 events and counting.[/caption]

The late Justice Antonin Scalia and the vacancy he left behind continued to loom large over the justices’ summer appearances, as his colleagues were often called upon to speak about his legacy, their memories of serving with him, and their thoughts on adjusting to an eight-member Supreme Court.

[caption id="attachment_245207" align="aligncenter" width="521"] A snapshot of the Justices’ appearances in OT2015.[/caption] Because June has traditionally been a busy opinion-writing month for the Supreme Court, the Justices’ schedule of events was relatively light in comparison to previous months.

Even after his death, Justice Antonin Scalia loomed large over his colleagues’ speaking engagements in February and March. On February 17, Justice Stephen Breyer headlined the 2016 Brennan Center Jorde Symposium at Yale Law School. Drawing on the themes from his book, The Court and The World: American Law and the New Global Realities, Breyer said that in all his years on the Supreme Court, “perhaps the most remarkable change is the change in the number of cases that require a judge to know something beyond our own shores in order to make a sensible decision in that case.” Breyer also asked for a moment of silence for his late colleague noting that the Court “will be a grayer place without him.” The New Haven Register covered the lecture. A video, posted by Yale Law School, is available on Vimeo.

The late Justice Antonin Scalia is at the forefront of everyone’s minds this week. While his jurisprudence and his legacy have been ably (and extensively) analyzed elsewhere, we wanted to take a moment to highlight Justice Scalia’s exceptionally energetic speaking itinerary. Since the launch of SCOTUS Map in July 2014, we tracked fifty appearances for Scalia (out of 311 total events prior to his death).

On December 7, Justice Stephen Breyer was featured as part of the Aspen Institute's Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series in Washington, D.C., where he discussed his latest book, The Court and the World. The Aspen Institute has posted video and a review of the event online. Two days later, Justice Anthony Kennedy was honored with the Beacon Prize at Human Rights First's 2015 Human Rights Summit Gala in Washington, D.C. According to Human Rights First, Kennedy received the prize for his leadership in "interpreting and applying the law to advance human dignity and freedom," including his majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. "It is our duty as Americans, our duty as citizens of the world, our duty as persons, our duty as human beings, to ensure that light is always cast in the darkness and in the shadows where injustice persists," Kennedy said in his acceptance speech. "We must always re-dedicate ourselves to the proposition that the work of freedom is never done." Video of the award presentation and Kennedy's speech is available online.

Justice Anthony Kennedy picks up a couple of awards, Justice Stephen Breyer continues promoting his book on international law and the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., reflects on his role as the Court's leader in this overview of the Justices’ November and December events.