Who is Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and why does he matter?

The liberal left cannot afford to lose another of their three sympathetic justices – but the oldest one is, for now, going nowhere

Of all Donald Trump’s many legacies, one of the most enduring will be his impact on the US Supreme Court, to which he nominated three justices.

Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett are all ensconced for life terms alongside fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and John Roberts, and their decisions are already making a huge impact – particularly on voting rights, where a decision earlier this summer (in Brnovich v Democratic National Committee) effectively gutted one of the key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, making it far easier to impose legislation that would deliberately make voting harder for particular racial groups.

Dissenting in that case were the court’s three liberal justices: Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, both appointed by Barack Obama, and Stephen Breyer, appointed by Bill Clinton. And as the Biden presidency unfolds, it’s the 82-year-old Mr Breyer who’s attracting the most attention – albeit not in the way he might want.