Some liberals have begun publically calling for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who will turn 70 this summer, to retire from the Supreme Court before the end of the year, in case the election doesn’t go in their favor this year, The Daily Caller reported.
If Trump were to win and one of the three liberal seats were to open up, SCOTUS would have a 7-2 conservative majority. If Sotomayor were to step down, Biden would have the opportunity to appoint someone younger to the Court, reducing the chances of conservatives expanding their control of the Court.
Questions have been swirling about Sotomayor’s health since 2018 when she made two trips accompanied by a medic, as well as another four trips in 2021 that mentioned “medical” gear or supples. Sotomayor is a diabetic and a former chain smoker.
Democrats are hoping to avoid a repeat of 2020 when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away just weeks before the 2020 election, allowing Trump to get Justice Amy Coney Barrett confirmed and expand the conservative majority on the court to 6-3.
“If she remains in her seat, the seat’s orientation will be determined by a race between how long she can remain on the job and how soon Democrats can regain simultaneous control of the presidency and the Senate, the former of which is likely to turn Republican next year and the latter of which is almost certain to,” former Republican turned Democrat writer Josh Borro wrote for the New York Magazine.
“Sotomayor should retire now, when she can be replaced with a like-minded justice, rather than gamble,” Borro continued. “But that decision in turn would require her to acknowledge the partisan nature of her role. Strategic partisan retirements, while common, undercut the myth that justices make decisions blissfully unaware of partisan implications.”
The left made similar calls for Justice Breyer to retire to allow Biden to “appoint the first-ever Black woman” to the Supreme Court. Breyer retired that June, paving the way for Biden to appoint Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson.
Borro made the case that it could be more than a decade until Democrats have a shot at nominating another Justice. They are “making a bet that she will remain fit to serve through age 82 or 84,” Borro said.
Similar calls are likely going to be made for Justices Thomas and Alito, who will both be in their lates 70s but the end of Trump’s term.