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Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, the country’s oldest senior member of the judiciary at 82, is finally responding to months of calls from the retired left as Democrats still control the Senate.
Speaking to CNN in an interview released Thursday, Breyer, the tribunal’s top Liberal leader, said he didn’t feel the pressure and simply replied “No” when asked if he had decided when. he would resign.
As for the factors that would force him to retire, the Supreme Court judge said there were two.
“First and foremost, of course, health. Second, the court, ”he said.
Breyer, who turns 83 in August, said his tenure on the bench is also a factor, noting how much he appreciates the leadership he is able to bring to judges’ private discussions of cases as a veteran 27 years old.
“[It] made a difference for me, ”he said of these discussions and his role in them. “It’s not a fight. It’s not sarcasm. It is a deliberation.
He offered a clue in terms of timeline while discussing the late judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was confirmed in court a year before him in 1993.
As a result, she was the Senior Left Judge from 2010 until her death in 2020, when Breyer took over.
While Breyer’s tenure is unlikely to reach a decade like Ginsburg, he told the network he has decided his tenure will be longer than a single term.
Since President Biden took office in January, Democratic justice groups have expressed their eagerness to fill the 82-year-old seat with a young Liberal replacement who could serve for decades.
Asked about his plans in an interview with Slate in December, Breyer said: “I mean, eventually I’ll retire, of course,” adding: “[I]It’s hard to know exactly when.
It remains to be seen whether Breyer will bow to political pressure from the rising progressive left and bow out, as Democrats appear to fear such a vacancy will be filled while Biden still has the Senate under Democratic control.
Those pressures only intensified when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Said last month he would not allow a vote on a Biden Supreme Court candidate if Republicans recovered. bedroom.
McConnell was asked if he would follow the same rule he used by the party in 2016 to deny a hearing to President Barack Obama’s candidate Merrick Garland.
Garland, who is now Biden’s attorney general, was originally appointed to fill the post left vacant by the death of Judge Antonin Scalia.
“So I think it’s highly unlikely. In fact, no, I don’t think either party if they were in control, if they were different from the president, would confirm a candidate for the Supreme Court in the middle of an election. What was different in 2020 was that we were on the same party as the president, ”the Kentucky Republican said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show in June.
He was referring to the Senate confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s choice to fill the void left by Ginsburg’s death.
At the time, Republicans controlled the House and Senate, and the vote infuriated Democrats, who pointed out that McConnell delayed Garland’s appointment in the final months of the Obama administration in 2016.
The vote to endorse Barrett gave Trump his third Supreme Court nomination in four years – along with Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh – and cemented the current Conservative 6-3 majority on the court.
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