Not a Judicial Activist, Breyer Says

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Stephen G. Breyer promised the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday that he did not believe in “judicial activism.”

“The judiciary is ill-equipped to make broad-reaching policy determinations,” the Boston judge said in the standard questionnaire submitted to the committee for which he once worked. “A judge seeking to solve a general social problem is less likely to have available all the relevant facts than a Legislature or executive entity,” he added.

Breyer and his wife, Joanna, also revealed that they own stocks valued at $2.8 million, real estate valued at $1.9 million and pension accounts totaling $862,000.

The Senate panel is scheduled to begin hearings on Breyer’s confirmation July 12, and so far no serious controversy has arisen over his nomination. Republican senators have been especially effusive in their praise of President Clinton’s nominee. Last week, the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative group, issued an evaluation of Breyer’s record and found little to criticize.