The Washington Post has published an in-depth story on the chronology leading to Breyer’s nomination.
In the fall, someone, someway, told the White House that Breyer intended to retire early in 2022.
Two people familiar with the situation say that senior White House officials knew for months Breyer was about to retire, even before he announced it in a letter last Thursday to Biden.
According to people who spoke under the condition that they not reveal private conversations, Breyer informed senior White House officials late last fall that he was closing in on a decision.
Quelle source was this information? This is evident in the article, which mentions that former Breyer clerks are employed in administration.
While it’s not known how many Biden’s assistants were aware of Breyer’s thinking, ex-Breyer clerks remain stocked in the administration. These include Jake Sullivan, national security advisor, Tim Wu (who works on National Economic Council), and Josh Geltzer (who works on National Security Council). White House Chief Of Staff Ron Klain has also a close relationship to Breyer, having worked in the White House Counsel’s Office during President Bill Clinton’s nomination of the justice.
The White House was aware that Breyer would soon be retiring, so they didn’t feel the need to press Breyer via surrogates.
Senior Biden staffers were reassured by the news that Breyer would soon be retiring. This was a sensitive matter at the White House. It also allowed the president to nominate an alternative justice in time for the November midterm elections. The people stated that once they knew Breyer was retiring, there was less pressure for White House officials to contact emissaries about the possibility of him stepping down.
Breyer also shares one tip with us:
Breyer became actually alarm last year after Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., was temporarily hospitalized following Biden’s Inauguration, according to Breyer’s source who spoke under the condition that anonymity in order to address a sensitive issue.
Justice Ginsburg’s suicide would seem to have been enough. Justice Scalia’s, Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Ginsburg were also sufficient. Breyer was apparently affected by Leahy’s hospitalization.
Charles, Justice Breyer’s older brother, offers us more brotherly affection. Justice Breyer states that Justice Breyer knew of the Demand Justice pressure campaign. Evidently Justice Breyer was affected in some way by the “logic” of the campaign.
U.S. district judge Charles Breyer was Breyer’s brother and said, in an interview: “Ofcourse he knew about this campaign. The campaign was what impressed him, not the campaign itself but its logic. And he thought he should take into account the fact that this was an opportunity for a Democratic president — and he was appointed by a Democratic president — to fill his position with someone who is like-minded.” Charles Breyer said, “He didn’t want to die on a bench.”
These comments are not for me. Justice Breyer is smart. Was he even going to need someone to tell him, let alone a billboard vehicle!, that there was actually a Democratic president in the White House and that he had been appointed by a Democratic Justice? The impressive logic is where? Only one effect was achieved by the campaign: to press Breyer. Breyer seems to have accepted that pressure.