Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer named 2026 O’Connor Justice Prize recipient

Stephen Breyer, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1994 to 2022, has been named the 2026 recipient of the O’Connor Justice Prize.

Administered by the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, the award was established in 2014 to honor the legacy of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. It recognizes leaders whose work advances the rule of law, human rights and equality worldwide.

An advisory board, spearheaded by Ambassador Barbara Barrett and the Honorable Ruth McGregor, selects each recipient annually who best embodies Justice O’Connor’s legacy of service. Justice Breyer’s recognition in 2026 coincides with the nation’s 250th anniversary, underscoring the role of the rule of law as a cornerstone of American democracy.

“Justice Breyer’s career reflects the very ideals Justice O’Connor championed — civic engagement, thoughtful discourse and the power of law to improve lives. Having served alongside her on the Supreme Court, Justice Breyer has carried that same commitment forward through his principled leadership on and off the bench. His work extends her legacy, and it is a profound honor to recognize his contributions with the O’Connor Justice Prize,” said Stacy Leeds, Willard H. Pedrick Dean, Regents and Foundation Professor of Law.

Across decades of public service, Breyer has worked as a scholar, jurist, author and civic leader. He clerked for Justice Arthur Goldberg, taught at Harvard Law School and later became chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. On the U.S. Sentencing Commission, he helped develop the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter, himself honored with the O’Connor Justice Prize in 2017, appointed Breyer to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, where he later served as chief judge.

Nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton and confirmed by a bipartisan Senate vote, Breyer became known for his pragmatic approach and his judicial philosophy of “active liberty.” He authored influential opinions, including Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt and Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., and wrote notable dissents in Bush v. Gore and Citizens United v. FEC.

Since retiring from the court in 2022, Breyer has returned to teaching at Harvard Law School and continues to shape civic discourse through his writing and lectures. His recent works include Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism (2024) and Pragmatism or Textualism (Harvard Law Review, 2025).

The O’Connor Justice Prize Advisory Board emphasized that Breyer’s lifelong commitment to principled jurisprudence and civic engagement embodies the ideals Justice O’Connor championed.

Breyer will accept the O’Connor Justice Prize in early 2026 at a ceremony in Phoenix. 
Additional past recipients include:

• Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first democratically elected female head of state in Africa, was honored for her leadership in guiding Liberia through recovery after civil war and the Ebola crisis, her lifelong fight for freedom and equality and her global advocacy for women’s leadership and human rights.
• Rangina Hamidi, former Afghan minister of education, was honored for her courageous advocacy for women’s rights, her leadership in empowering girls and women through education and social entrepreneurship and her continued fight for freedom and equality in the face of Taliban oppression.
• Inaugural recipient Navanethem Pillay of South Africa, the former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, was honored for her fight against apartheid and her championing of international human rights.
• Ana Palacio, the first woman foreign minister of Spain, general counsel of the World Bank,and member of the European Parliament, was honored as a guardian of democracy, advocate for nonviolent dispute resolution and protector of judicial independence.
• Jimmy Carter, the 39th president of the United States, was honored for his humanitarian work after leaving office. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to find peaceful solutions to conflicts, to advance democracy and promote economic and social development.
• Anson Chan, the former chief secretary of Hong Kong, is known as “Hong Kong’s conscience.” She was honored for her decades of devotion to social justice and democracy. She helped oversee Hong Kong’s transition from British control in 1997.
• Frederik Willem de Klerk, the former South African president, honored for leading the effort to dismantle that country’s apartheid system and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela in 1993.
• Nadia Murad, the acclaimed Yazidi human rights activist, honored for founding a global initiative to advocate for survivors of violence and genocide, becoming the first Iraqi and Yazidi to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which she received in 2018.
• Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito, president of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, honored for her work in creating the modern framework for international justice and decades of teaching, research and leadership around international human rights and, more specifically, women’s rights.
• The Honorable Louise Arbour, former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and high commissioner for human rights for the United Nations. She secured the first conviction for genocide since 1948 and the first indictment for war crimes by a sitting European head of state, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Written by Kourtney Kelley