Breyer Will Reportedly Retire, Giving Biden Chance To Pick New Justice

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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1402819
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Breyer Will Reportedly Retire, Giving Biden McConnell Chance To Pick New Justice

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Thank God. I was just thinking about this the other day and hoping that Breyer would do exactly this.

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Just in time for Manchin and Sinema to ride in and insist on restoring the filibuster for SCOTUS appointments, because tradition, bipartisanship, civility, and how easy it is to get ten republicans to not filibuster a SCOTUS nominee.

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I accept this is the right thing to do. ESPECIALLY after Mitch McConnell said if the GOP takes the Senate this mid-term Biden will get NO nominees on the court.

Breyer did not want to quit (I have not heard of any special medical issues lately for him) and the fact that he felt he HAD to sucks big time.

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He reached the “What’s the point of this job?” phase. Must be hard working with zealots with life-time terms. Even the Supreme Court of Iran limits the terms of its justices to five years.

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I completely understand the impulse here, burned as we have been so many times. But in this case, McConnell has fuck-all to do with it. Maybe Manchinema (and other ‘centrists’) will have some effect, but Biden’s pick ought to go through with few shenanigans.

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Yes–a version of saying the quiet parts, um, quietly.

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This actually creates an interesting dynamic. Manchin and Sinema have both made subtle “don’t push me” threats towards leaving the party for the GQP side. With a SCOTUS seat now in the balance, I wonder how that changes the math? Would they be more likely to change parties now, delivering the seat to McConnell in exchange for the assignments they most certainly wouldn’t receive currently?

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Well, as shitty as they are for a host of reasons, they have been good on federal judgeships as I understand it. Demanding an un-carving of McConnel’s 2017 carve-out would be pretty extreme. Ugh, thanks, now I’m depressed. :wink:

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I cannot imagine, nor do I want to imagine, the opprobrium–not all of it verbal, I’d fear–that would rain down on their heads if this were to happen. People surrounding Manchin’s yacht or chasing Sinema into a bathroom would be the least of their (and our) troubles.

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Of course, for the sake of bipartisan comity and political “healing”, Biden must nominate a candidate that will satisfy Repubs even though none of them will vote for him or her, someone just slightly to the right of say Ted Nugent or Sidney Powell. In fact they’d make splendid centrist nominees if only they weren’t so darned liberal.

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Thank you, Justice Breyer!

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Guys, let’s not be defeatist right out of the gate. As someone else pointed out, Manchinema have been good on voting for judges. I will say this is one reason I’ve not been on the “torch and scorch 'em” bandwagon even though I’m as mad and frustrated with them as anyone. Judges…matter. Supreme Court seats matter even more.

Now, will they use their leverage to force a less liberal candidate than many of us would like? Probably. Are their noses enough out of joint by the party blowback that they might revert to maximum pain-in-the-ass mode as candidates get floated? Possibly. But we don’t have any real reason to believe they’ll go full turncoat.

These are the cards we’re dealt, and we should be looking at this as an opportunity.

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ketanji jackson brown 51 and pretty liberal. She took Garland’s job on the court when he went to AG. Let’s put someone on who is young and liberal.

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Bless his grifting heart…I’ve ‘heard’ he has money problems…at least in his head.

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Eh, he’s 83. It’s a good time to retire (arguably overdue, even if he is in the pink of health) and get some fresh blood.

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If Biden eats ice cream today it better be Breyer’s.

— NoelCaslerComedy (@caslernoel) January 26, 2022
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hahahahahahaha That’s adorbs.

More comments with no mention of the senators from Az and WVa, please. Please.

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It offers the chance of a new McConnell Rule: no Demonrat’s nominee to the SCOTUS can be approved when a reactionary could, one day, be elected prez’nent.

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