Justice Breyer robbed at vacation home

WASHINGTON -- Justice Stephen Breyer was robbed last week by a machete-wielding intruder at his vacation home in the West Indies, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said yesterday.

The 73-year-old Breyer, wife Joanna and guests were confronted by the robber around 9 p.m. Thursday in the home Breyer owns on the Caribbean island of Nevis, spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. The intruder took about $1,000 in cash and no one was hurt, she said. She said the robbery was reported to local authorities, but she did not know whether an arrest had been made.

Breyer reported on his most recent annual disclosure in June that property he owns on Nevis is worth between $100,000 and $250,000.

The last time a justice was the victim of a crime was in 2004, when a group of young men assaulted Justice David Souter as he jogged on a city street. Souter suffered minor injuries.

In 1996, a man snatched Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's purse while she was out walking with her husband and daughter near their home in Washington. Ginsburg was not hurt.

The justices return from a nearly monthlong recess for a closed-door conference on Friday. They will next meet in public on Feb. 21. -- AP