In a recent development, a number of liberal voices have begun to publicly suggest that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, aged 69, should consider retirement before the next election, thereby paving the way for a younger Democratic appointee to take her place.
This proposition is seen as a strategic move to prevent a potential 7-2 conservative majority in the event of former President Donald Trump's return to the White House in 2024. This sentiment has been echoed by several liberal columnists this week, reminiscent of similar calls made early last year. Politico had reported that some Democrats close to the Biden administration shared this view, but were hesitant to publicly suggest that the "first Latina justice" should step down to secure her seat for the party.
Josh Borro, a Republican-turned-Democrat writer, questioned this hesitancy in a piece published on Monday. He wrote, "Youre worried about putting control of the court completely out of reach for more than a generation, but you cant criticize an official whos putting your entire policy project at risk because she is Hispanic? If this is how the Democratic Party operates, it deserves to lose.
The fear of a conservative majority was heightened weeks before the 2020 election when the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg left a vacancy on the court. Despite this, Ginsburg had declined to retire during Obamas presidency, a decision that many Democrats are wary of repeating.
In 2021, Democrats successfully urged former Justice Stephen Breyer to retire, enabling President Biden to appoint the "first-ever Black woman" to the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Breyer retired in June 2022 at the age of 83.
However, Brian Fallon, former Executive Director of Demand Justice, which led the campaign against Breyer, stated last year that his organization does not have similar plans for Sotomayor. He told Politico, No judge is above reproach, but as crisis-level situations go, this does not seem as acute as Breyer was, or even as urgent a problem as, say, the Democrats ongoing refusal to get rid of blue slips.
In recent times, concerns about Sotomayors health have been in the spotlight. According to U.S. Marshals Service records reported by left-leaning court watch group Fix the Court, Sotomayor made multiple trips accompanied by medical personnel in 2018 and 2021.
Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, told the Huffington Post in February, Fifteen years was the average tenure for [U.S.] justices for the first 150 years of our republic. In the last 55 years, that number has now doubled. But the idea that Justice Sotomayor might be considering staying on the court until, I dont know, Naomi Biden [the presidents granddaughter] is president, is probably not something a lot of folks would want to see.
Sotomayor herself has spoken about feeling "tired" due to the demanding current caseload during comments at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in January, as reported by Bloomberg Law.
The Supreme Court, with its conservative majority, has secured significant victories over the past two terms, including decisions rejecting affirmative action in higher education, protecting religious liberty, and most notably, overturning Roe v. Wade. This term, the court faces controversial questions on abortion pills, censorship, the Second Amendment, and former President Donald Trump.
Sotomayor expressed her frustration, saying, Every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart. But I have to get up the next morning and keep on fighting.
Borro argued that the Democrats' opportunity to appoint a new justice may be further away than a single election cycle it could be multiple. He wrote, If Democrats lose the bet, the courts 6-3 conservative majority will turn into a 7-2 majority at some point within the next decade. If they win the bet, what do they win? They win the opportunity to read dissents written by Sotomayor instead of some other liberal justice. This is obviously an insane trade.
Jonathan Chait, a columnist for New York Magazine, also suggested that Sotomayor, a "69-year-old diabetic former chain-smoker," should acknowledge the "partisan nature" of her position and retire soon.
Paul Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, who had previously argued for Breyers and Sotomayors retirements, reiterated his support for her stepping down on Wednesday.
Carrie Severino, president of the conservative legal advocacy group JCN, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, It sure does seem like there is a growing chorus of liberal pundits calling for Justice Sotomayor to retire. It makes you wonder whether the Left is going to try to bully her into retiring, like they did with Justice Breyer.
President Biden's lagging popularity in the polls, which consistently show voters believe they were better off under the Trump administration, adds another layer to this discussion. A recent New York Times and Siena College poll recorded Trump leading by five percentage points and revealed that 10% of former Biden voters now back Trump.
The Real Clear Politics average sets Trumps lead in a hypothetical matchup with Biden at 1.8%.
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