Justice Stephen Breyer To Announce His Retirement – Let The SCOTUS Nomination Fight Begin

A day late and a dollar short if you ask me. The arrogance Justice Breyer displayed in defending this dysfunctional Supreme Court last year while promoting his new book will not soon be forgotten. This should have occurred last summer.

CNN reports, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire:

Breyer could formally announce his retirement with Biden as early as tomorrow

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will formally announce his retirement with President Biden on Thursday, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer reported.

“That could come as early as tomorrow over at the White House,” Blitzer said.

However, Breyer does not plan to leave the court until a new nominee is officially confirmed and becomes a Supreme Court justice, Blitzer added. “So he will remain for weeks, if not a few months, whatever it takes to get a new nominee confirmed.”

This decision to retire was a difficult one to make for Breyer, Blitzer noted.

“He’s a relatively healthy 83-year-old. But he realizes … the politics of what’s going on right now,” Blitzer said. “There could be a change in the majority in the United States Senate after the midterm elections. And so this is a good time if the Democrats … could get somebody confirmed to replace him.”

When Breyer goes to the White House, Biden will thank him “for all the important work he’s done over these years,” Blitzer added.

Breyer’s retirement paves the way for Biden to appoint a new Supreme Court justice.

Breyer’s retirement means Biden will pick a new Supreme Court justice. Here are 2 possible candidates.

On the campaign trail, Biden vowed that if he were to get a vacancy he would fill it with a Black woman, which would represent a historic first for the high court.

The President and the White House have not formally named any possible nominees. But potential candidates include Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, who was confirmed last year to the powerful DC-based appellate court. She once served as a law clerk for Breyer, and also worked as an assistant federal public defender and served on the US Sentencing Commission.

Another possibility would be Justice Leondra Kruger, 45, who serves on the California Supreme Court and is a veteran of the US Solicitor General’s office.

Members of Biden’s team have previously stressed that they are seeking diversity for judicial appointments and that they are prepared to break from the norm and consider those whose legal experiences have been historically underrepresented on the federal bench, including those who are public defenders and civil rights and legal aid attorneys.

Biden had pledged to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court. Here’s a list of possible nominees.

President Biden vowed during the campaign trail that if he were to get a vacancy he would put a Black woman on the high court.

Well before Stephen Breyer’s retirement plans became public, a short list of potential nominees had been circulating Washington and officials in the White House Counsel’s office built files on various candidates in anticipation of a potential vacancy. Now, those efforts will ramp up significantly and the President will likely hold one-on-one meetings before announcing his pick.

While the President nor the White House have announced a nominee, here are potential picks who have been on observers’ short list:

• • • DC Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson: Biden has already elevated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once, appointing her last year to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is considered the second-most powerful federal court in the country. Previously, the 51-year-old judge served on the federal district court in DC. Because of that appellate appointment, she’s already been through a vetting process that included an interview with the President himself. Fittingly, she clerked for Breyer and holds degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School. She also served as an assistant federal public defender, making her a prime example of the Biden White House’s focus on appointing judges with backgrounds that are outside the typical prosecutor and Big Law box.
    • California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger: Kruger, now 45, was the youngest person to be appointed to the California Supreme Court when then-Gov. Jerry Brown nominated her in 2014. Kruger is intimately familiar with the Supreme Court having worked as a clerk for the late Justice John Paul Stevens and served as acting deputy solicitor general in the Obama administration. While in the Solicitor General’s office, she argued 12 cases in front of the Supreme Court representing the government. At the Justice Department, she also earned the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, the department’s highest award for employee performance, in 2013 and 2014.
    • South Carolina US District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs: Childs, a judge on South Carolina’s federal court, is said to have a major booster in House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a Biden ally who helped deliver South Carolina for the eventual nominee in the 2020 Democratic primary. Just last month, Biden nominated Childs to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the nomination remains pending.

Other names that have been floated:

• • • District Judge Wilhelmina “Mimi” Wright, a judge on Minnesota’s federal district court whose consideration would likely please Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee.
    • Circuit Judge Eunice Lee, a former New York public defender whom Biden nominated to the Second Circuit on the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
    • Circuit Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, an alumna of Chicago’s public defender’s office whose appointment by Biden to the Seventh Circuit was cheered by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois.
    • Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights attorney who recently announced plans to step down from her role as President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Read more about the possible nominees here.

Yes, we can all name other Black women that we very much like. But assuming that Biden is going to do things by the most obvious book, and nominate a justice who has spent their career being a judge, this is your list.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 26, 2022

White House declines to comment further on Breyer retirement

The White House declined to comment further on the Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer retirement announcement, pointing to a tweet from press secretary Jen Psaki which says the administration has “no additional details or information to share” at this time.

It has always been the decision of any Supreme Court Justice if and when they decide to retire, and how they want to announce it, and that remains the case today. We have no additional details or information to share from @WhiteHouse

— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) January 26, 2022

Biden declines to weigh in on Breyer retirement

President Biden declined to weigh in on the news Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to retire, instead deferring to Breyer, who plans to announce his retirement at the White House as early as tomorrow, sources say.

“Every justice has the right to decide what he or she is going to do, and announce that on their own,” Biden told reporters in the State Dining Room Wednesday. “There’s been no announcement from Justice Breyer — let him make whatever statement he is going to make, and I’ll be happy to talk about it later,” the President said.

Democrats confident on chances Biden’s nominee to replace Breyer could be confirmed, sources say

Senate Democrats are confident that whomever President Biden picks as his nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will receive enough votes to get confirmed, according to senior Democratic sources.

That’s because of both the math and the history. Since Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell pushed through a change in filibuster rules in 2017, it just requires a party-line, simple majority vote to advance a Supreme Court nominee.

In the 50-50 Senate, all Democrats need to stay united with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.

Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has a long history of deferring to Presidents who make picks to the federal bench and the executive branch — backing two of three of then-President Trump’s choices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. He opposed Amy Coney Barrett because her confirmation vote was too close to the 2020 election.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, another key Democratic moderate, has also sided with Biden on nominations.

These prima donna Democratic divas are never to be trusted.

Kyrsten Sinema about to come out here claiming to be a Black woman and criticize the administration for not nominated her.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 26, 2022

And there’s a strong likelihood that Biden could win over some key GOP swing votes, such as Sen. Susan Collins, who voted for then-President Obama’s choices of Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. Sen. Lindsey Graham did as well. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who faces a Trump-inspired GOP challenger this year, also voted against Kavanaugh.

Of course, once the nomination is made and the vetting process occurs, the dynamics can certainly change.

Schumer says Biden’s SCOTUS pick will get a “prompt hearing” and be confirmed with “all deliberate speed”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday reacted to the news of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement, writing that American owes Breyer “an enormous debt of gratitude.”

Schumer also vowed that President Biden’s nominee to replace Breyer will be confirmed with all deliberate speed.” [A Brown v. Board of Education reference?]

Here’s Schumer’s full statement:

“For virtually his entire adult life, including a quarter century on the U.S. Supreme Court, Stephen Breyer has served his country with the highest possible distinction. He is, and always has been, a model jurist. He embodies the best qualities and highest ideals of American justice: knowledge, wisdom, fairness, humility, restraint. His work and his decisions as an Associate Justice on the biggest issues of our time – including voting rights, the environment, women’s reproductive freedom, and most recently, health care and the Affordable Care Act – were hugely consequential. America owes Justice Breyer an enormous debt of gratitude.

“President Biden’s nominee will receive a prompt hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will be considered and confirmed by the full United States Senate with all deliberate speed.”

Senate Judiciary Chair Durbin says he will move Biden’s nominee “expeditiously” through committee

Senate Judiciary Chair Sen. Dick Durbin promised to move President Biden’s Supreme Court nominee to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer “expeditiously” through the committee.

“I thank Justice Breyer for his decades serving the Court and the nation. He has been a trusted voice on the bench with a first-rate legal mind,” Durbin said in a statement.

“With this Supreme Court vacancy, President Biden has the opportunity to nominate someone who will bring diversity, experience, and an evenhanded approach to the administration of justice. I look forward to moving the President’s nominee expeditiously through the Committee.”

Let the SCOTUS nomination fight begin. It only takes a simpe majority vote to confirm a Supreme Court Justice (50 + Vice President) thanks to Mitch McConnell’s carve-out of the Senae filibuster rule and, using his previous logic, this is a seat that ideologically belongs to a liberal justice (McConnell violated his rule with conservative Amy Coney Barrett replacing liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsberg). That move also destroyed the “McConnell Rule,” i.e., no Supreme Court nominations in an election year. This evil GQP bastard is such a shameless hypocrite, I would not be surprised to hear him try to revive this.

With a 6-3 Republican advantage on the Court, allowing this minority seat to be filled without a fight is a possibility. The three liberal Jusitces on the Supreme Court next term will all be minority women.