Long-time Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer unexpectedly announced last week that he will retire from the High Court at the end of the current term (October), thus presenting the opportunity for President Biden to appoint his replacement – presumably with someone much younger who will be able to hold that position for years to come.
Breyer is one of the three remaining liberal justices, and his decision to retire after more than 27 years on the court allows President Joe Biden to appoint a successor who will maintain the current 6-3 split between conservative and liberal justices. Justice Breyer was appointed to the Supreme Court by Bill Clinton in 1994.
At 83, Breyer is the court’s oldest member. For months liberal activists have urged him to retire while Democrats hold both the White House and the Senate – a position that could change after the midterm elections in November. But heretofore, he has resisted – more on this below.
Liberals contended, for example, that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stayed on the court too long, especially given her history of health problems, and should have stepped down during the Obama administration. Ginsburg’s death from cancer at 87 allowed then-President Donald Trump to appoint her successor, conservative Amy Coney Barrett, moving the court further to the right. An appointment by Biden could keep Breyer’s seat on the liberal side of the court for decades to come. Now, he’ll get that chance.
Biden pledged during his 2020 presidential campaign to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court if elected president, a promise White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday the president still “certainly stands by.”
The announcement yesterday allows Democrats ample time to push a nominee through the confirmation process by summer, positioning her to join the court before the next term opens in October. Completing that process this year avoids the uncertainty about whether Democrats might lose control of the Senate in November’s midterm elections.
The question then becomes: Does President Biden have any Black women in mind for the Supreme Court? And the answer certainly appears to be yes. The following Black women are said to be on the president’s short list.
Like me, you may not recognize their names but all are players in the Democrat party. I would have preferred the president pick Breyer’s replacement with whoever is most qualified for the position based on their experience and accomplishments, but then it’s Mr. Biden’s choice to make.
With Democrats holding the narrowest of majorities in the Senate, Biden will have to choose someone who can safely (and quickly) get 50 votes for confirmation. Vice President Kamala Harris could provide the tie-breaking vote if Senate Democrats are split on the nomination.
In addition to the vote count, Biden also has to keep an eye on the calendar. Senate Republicans are likely to retake the chamber in this year’s midterm elections and have already signaled they would block a Biden nominee to the Supreme Court.
It typically takes two to three months for a President to see his nominee confirmed by the Senate once he or she is named. The most recent justice, however, was confirmed in just a month and a half, as Senate Republicans rushed to get Justice Amy Coney Barrett approved before the 2020 election.
So, I think it is safe to say President Biden has plenty of time to get his Supreme Court nominee confirmed before the election – if he doesn’t take too long deciding. I suspect he’ll jump right on it just ahead.
At the end of the day, the outstanding question is why did Justice Breyer unexpectedly decide to retire at the end of the current court term after maintaining for the last year that he was not interested in retiring? We’ll never know, of course.
But what I think is safe to assume is that Justice Breyer (age 83) finally gave in to mounting pressure to step down so that President Biden can appoint someone much younger who can hold that position for many years to come.
I’ll close by pointing out that while Justice Breyer was considered a liberal, he voted with the conservatives a fair amount during his tenure on the High Court. He was a rare justice who voted his mind, whether or not it fit the liberal agenda. While I might hesitate to say it, he will be missed.
On a final and unrelated note, the Fed monetary committee met this week, and in his post-meeting press conference, Chairman Powell virtually promised the Fed will raise short-term interest rates at its upcoming meeting on March 15-16.
While this was not a big surprise, it is very unusual for the Fed Chairman to telegraph so specifically the Fed’s upcoming plans. I’ll have more to say about this in next Tuesday’s Forecasts & Trends.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.