A Conversation with Justice Stevens

Abstract

GREENHOUSE: Let me start out by quoting you, Justice Stevens. You've said many times that "learning on the job" was an important part of your long tenure. You were already an experienced federal judge by the time you got to the Court at the age of fifty-five, but things looked different by the end of your tenure than they had seemed at the beginning, so I wanted to give you a chance to reflect on some of what that learning consisted of. STEVENS: Well, the answer to that question would be rather long. But it's true: Every judge learns on the job. Every good judge learns on the job, that is. Your comment makes me think a little bit about the confirmation process, and when I went through the process, Ed Levi, who was the Attorney General, didn't give me any advice on how to answer questions, and neither did anyone else in the White House.