Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer pledged Friday to work to enhance the public's trust in the nation's justice system "for it is the very foundation of the rule of law."
Breyer, guest of honor at a White House ceremony, repeated the oath of office he took at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's vacation cottage Aug. 3 - the day Breyer officially became a justice.Despite that earlier action, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton referred to Breyer in welcoming remarks as "judge-soon-to-be-justice."
After Justice Antonin Scalia, the senior Supreme Court member in town, administered the oath, Breyer told those assembled he would do his best to meet "this awesome responsibility."
"A court is not a bureaucracy and a judge is not a bureaucrat," he said.
Hillary Clinton apologized for her absent husband, whom she said had looked forward to congratulating Breyer in person.
Clinton traveled to Minnesota to thump for a revival of the crime bill blocked by the House on Thursday.
Hillary Clinton explained that the president's absence from Breyer's ceremony was due to "unexpected and unfortunate circumstances."
Vice President Al Gore, saying he did not want to sound partisan, did some of his own imploring for a better way to deal with "the problem of violent crime."
Breyer won't start giving full attention to his new job until next month, but he already appears in sync with the cautious court he's joined.
"I've realized people are very interested in what I'm about to say, and I'd better not say anything very interesting," Breyer told an American Bar Association audience recently.
Still wrapping up his duties as chief judge of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Breyer this week worked out of Justice David H. Souter's offices in the Supreme Court's Capitol Hill building.