Justice Breyer on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Colbert: You go to work every day, and manage to get your job done with a group of nine people, half of whom will disagree with you vehemently on a host of different issues. How come you guys manage to keep doing your job and the rest of the government can't?

Breyer: When we're sitting around that table — that's a good question. I don't know about — leave the rest of the government out of it. But I'll say: when we're sitting around that table, the nine of us discussing — I've been there over 20 years, 21 — I have never heard a voice raised in anger. I have never heard one member of our Court say something insulting about another — not even as a joke. Of course we disagree. We disagree about half the time. We're unanimous about half the time. And we're 5-4 — and it's not always the same four — maybe 20% or so. And we feel it possibly quite strongly. But the discussion is professional. It is serious. And it is not personal. And we are good friends, despite the fact that we agree some of the time and disagree others of the time.

Colbert: You know, you're yelling at me now.