Multiple news sources claim that Associate Justice Stephen Breyer plans to step down after serving 28 years as Supreme Court justice. The President informed him of the decision last week. POLITICO reported.
Breyer currently serves as the Court’s oldest judge and is the longest-serving member in the current liberal wings, which also includes Justices Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan. The libertarian view of his track record doesn’t seem to be very admirable. In 2014, ReasonDamon Root of’s described him as “a pretty trustworthy vote for the government”, who has displayed tremendous respect for both Congresses and police.
Like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before him, Breyer has long faced pressure from progressive activists and pundits to time his retirement so that a Democratic president could appoint his successor—and a Democratic-controlled Senate could confirm them.
Biden has only a narrow window of opportunity to ensure the appointment and confirmation of liberal justices, with the GOP likely to retake the Senate in 2022. Assuming that nobody breaks ranks, 50 Democratic Senators will confirm the appointment of any liberal justice. Democratic senators. Past aspects of Biden’s agenda have been blocked by Joe Manchin (W. Va.), Kyrsten Sinema, (Ariz.). there’s no real reasonThey would be foolish to believe they could stop the president replacing liberal justices with conservative ones, but these are odd times.
If Biden can replace Breyer by someone with similar ideologies, then the Court’s composition will be relatively stable, consisting of 6 Republicans and 3 Democrats.
ReasonDamon Root of’s will write more about Breyer’s legacy in a future article.