MAKE IT WORK!: JUSTICE BREYER ON PATENTS IN THE LIFE SCIENCES

Like Tim Gunn, the avuncular advisor to aspiring designers on reality TV's Project Runway, if Justice Stephen G. Breyer had a slogan, it would be "Make it work!" The idea of the law as useful -- as a way to solve problems -- runs through his many writings, whether opinions, articles, or books. This focus on making things work -- making sure the trains run on time -- is exemplified often in Justice Breyer's questions at oral argument. Sometimes Justice Breyer's tendency to try to make the law work, to be practical rather than adversarial, produces some surreal moments. In a world where every litigant was as committed to "make it work" as Justice Breyer, this approach would represent the ideal way forward on the complex severability question the Court ultimately was able to duck.