Justice Breyer Officially Announces His Retirement

Editorial Staff - January 27, 2022

Justice Breyer, who is 83, has faced considerable pressure to step aside under a Democratic president and while Democrats control the Senate, even narrowly almost certainly ramming through Biden's nominee.

From the editors of National Review: Biden has unwisely limited his options by preemptively declaring during the 2020 campaign that his first Supreme Court nominee would be a black woman. With the declaration, he disqualified dozens of liberal and progressive jurists for no reason other than their race and gender. But just another example of the incompetence of "sleepy Joe". And that promise is not a great start in selecting someone sworn to provide equal justice under law (National Review).

David Freddoso points out that if he were to pick his current Vice President Kamala Harris: Appointing Harris kills 3 birds with 1 stone. 1. Gets rid of her permanently. 2. Ideologically reliable justice. 3. Embarrasses her by forcing her to vote break the tie on her own nomination in the Senate.

Now we are not saying Biden will do it, but those are 3 reasons he might consider that as an option. Just not sure how her Cackle would go over in the hallowed halls of the highest court in the land.

From Shannon Bream: Multiple sources tell me Justice Breyer was not planning to announce his retirement today. A politically motivated message by a White House that sems to be falling further and further behind the 8-Ball each and every day. Breyer's office described him as “upset” with how this has played out. We still await any official notice from his office and/or the #SCOTUS public information office (Twitter).

Some of the options available for Biden (NY Post). From Nikki Haley: Would be nice if Pres Biden chose a Supreme Court nominee who was best qualified without a race/gender litmus test. That’s what I did when I picked Tim Scott as Senator of South Carolina (Twitter).

From Jonathan Turley: The three leading candidates are Justice Leondra Krueger of the California Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs. These are all worthy candidates who could have been considered for any vacancy without declaring that they were qualified by virtue of filling a quota—an unfortunate implication for the ultimate nominee (WSJ). It is sad in our opinion that whoever he nominates will face their legacy being that they were only nominated to fill that quota.