WATCH: Justice Breyer Officially Announces Retirement from Supreme Court, Reminiscing About American History and His Time on the Bench

Justice Stephen Breyer officially announced his plans to retire from the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Breyer appeared at the White House alongside President Joe Biden, who now has the ability to nominate the first justice of his presidency and provide the seat to a left-leaning justice.

While speaking on Breyer’s time on the Court, Biden highlighted his “practical, sensible and nuanced” opinions, calling him an “exemplary justice.”

The president went on to praise Breyer for the landmark opinions he wrote on topics including reproductive rights, voting rights, and laws protecting the environment as well as religious practices.

“It was my honor to vote to confirm Justice Breyer to serve in the United States Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals first in 1980, and then 14 years later in 1994, I got to preside as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee over his Supreme Court confirmation hearings,” Biden shared, pointing to their history working together.

“I was proud and grateful to be there at the start of his distinguished career on the Supreme Court and I’m very proud to be here on the announcement of his retirement,” added the president.

Breyer took the podium following Biden’s remarks, thanking him for being “terribly nice” before reminiscing about American history and his time on the bench.

“I sit there on the bench, and after we hear lots of cases and after a while, the impression, it takes a while,” he said, sharing what he tells students when asked what he finds meaningful about his job.

“I have to admit, that the impression you get as you well know, this is a complicated country. There are more than 330 million people, and my mother used to say, it’s every race, it’s every religion, and she would emphasize this, and it’s every point of view possible.”

Breyer later pointed to former President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, highlighting his dedication “to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

He went on to quote Lincoln’s address, saying, “We are now engaged in a great Civil War — to determine whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

Breyer continued to highlight the nation’s dedication to the “experiment” of liberty:

See those are the words that I want to see. An experiment. And that’s what he thought, it’s an experiment. And I found some letters that George Washington wrote where he said the same thing: It’s an experiment. That experiment existed then because even the liberals in Europe, they are looking here and saying, it’s a great idea in principle, but it will never work. But we will show them it does. That’s what Washington thought and that’s what Lincoln thought, and that’s what people still think today.

Breyer went on to say that he tells students to “pick justice up,” as “it’s an experiment that is still going on.”

“And I will tell you something, you know who will see whether that experiment works? It’s you, my friend. It’s you, Mr. high school student. It’s you Mr. college student. It’s you Mr. law school student. It’s us, but it’s you,” he concluded.

“It’s the next generation and the one after that. My grandchildren and their children. And they’ll determine whether the experiment still works, and of course, I’m an optimist and I’m pretty sure it will. Does it surprise you that that’s the thought that comes into my mind today? I don’t know, but thank you.”

Ahead of the gathering, Breyer had officially announced his retirement to Biden in a letter of resignation.

“I enormously appreciate the privilege of serving as part of the federal judicial system,” Breyer wrote. “I have found the work challenging and meaningful. My relations with each of my colleagues have been warm and friendly. Throughout, I have been aware of the great honor of participating as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the rule of law.”

While Breyer’s exit does not change the conservative majority of the court, it does give the president an opportunity to deliver on his pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court.

Breyer, 83, was nominated to the Court by former President Bill Clinton in 1994, replacing Harry Blackmun, who had served as a justice since 1970.

Prior to his time on the court, Breyer was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter and maintained the position for the next 14 years.

The retiring justice had previously lost a spot on the Court to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was appointed by Clinton in 1993 to fill the seat vacated by Justice Byron White.

Clinton reportedly gave Ginsburg the seat after an interview with Breyer — who was suffering from a punctured lung and broken ribs after getting hit by a car — went poorly.

Although Breyer is considered a liberal-leaning judge and was appointed to the court by a Democrat, he is frequently described as being the most pragmatic justice on the bench.

According to a source who spoke to The Washington Post, Breyer informed Biden of his plan to retire last week, and the White House made calls to senators regarding the news on Wednesday.

Watch above, via Fox News.