The senior-most liberal on the Supreme Court is enjoying that distinction and doesn’t want to talk about his retirement plans.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1381283
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1381283
Two words: “truck factor”.
4 Likes
Breyer must have thought about this, and must understand the consequences, especially after what happened with Ginsburg’s seat. The common wisdom is that he is waiting until next year, when his protege Ketanji Brown-Jackson has been on the 2nd Circuit for a year and can be nominated to take his place. It seems like a decent plan, as long as no Democrats die or resign, giving control of the judicial nomination process to McConnell and Republicans…if that happens then no justices will be allowed on the SC until a Republican is president or Republicans lose control of the Senate again.
There’s also the possibility Breyer is happy staying in his seat until he dies and will allow things to work themselves out however they do…it’s what Ginsburg did, though in fairness to her she should have been able to retire in 2016 while Obama could nominate her successor. When the Garland nomination crashed, she was stuck trying to tough it out to 2021, and she almost made it. I severely doubt that she would do the same thing if she knew how it would turn out, so the question is if Breyer is going to follow her path, possibly screwing over the idea of a balanced SC that rules for the people, or if he’ll actually consider the future of the nation in his decision on when to retire.
21 Likes
I don’t know…what is his percentage of voting for ‘liberal’ issues. It seems like he votes with the conservatives quite a bit.
1 Like
“The reaction to the justice’s noncommittal answers on retirement was swift.”
20 Likes
Ginsburg didn’t live long enough to ensure the court wouldn’t be set up to screw the country for at least a generation. Why should Breyer be any different.
When your ego can only be described as monumental, “for the good of the country” never enters into the equation.
This just offers more proof of why SCOTUS should be expanded to at least 13 or, preferably, 15, which would bring it more in line with the rest of the courts in the industrial world.
20 Likes
5 Likes
Breyer’s dream, apparently, is to give the GQP Senate the opportunity to spend 2 years blocking a nominee, thereby politicizing the court more than anything done in the history of the SCOTUS.
And if you think the GQP won’t make sure he’s dead sometime between 2023 and 2024 if they take over the Senate and that’s their only option, then you’re fucking nuts.
9 Likes
Much as I love and admire Ruth Bader Ginsburg, her decision to not retire when a liberal replacement could be secured will forever upset me.
Breyer has got to let his ego go.
Unfortunately, Biden doesn’t have a shady past business relationship with Breyer’s son so that he can pressure him to resign. /s. ETA: (Lookin’ at you Kennedy)
23 Likes
Nope.
Breyer’s Martin-Quinn score following the 2019-2020 term was -1.87, making him the third-most liberal justice on the court at that time. Martin-Quinn scores were developed by political scientists Andrew Martin and Kevin Quinn from the University of Michigan, and measure the justices of the Supreme Court along an ideological continuum. The further from zero on the scale, the more conservative (>0) or liberal (<0) the justice.
18 Likes
I never understood Justice GInsberg’s remaining while sick, except from the viewpoint of personal power. I think Breyer and the rest of them suffer from the same malignancy. BTW Breyer is no liberal. I really lost confidence in SCOTUS after bush-gore and this last 4 years has done nothing to change my thinking.
3 Likes
So a Quinn Martin Production?
19 Likes
Mark Joseph Stern has been all over the place recently, along with Dahlia Lithwick, and his take on recent decisions and Breyer staying on the court are a little grim, but he is usually right about SCOTUS issues.
He thinks Breyer has been bathing in the sanctified air of being a Supreme Court Justice for so long that he has convinced himself that there really is not an overtly political bend to the court - that the justices are voting their honest beliefs. OK.
I can’t get too excited about this because we have already lost the court for decades beyond anything I will ever see. The fact that Trump got to put 3 Federalist Society (or worse) Justices on the Court is already so painful that Breyer’s coyness is like flea bite in the midst of a third degree burn.
12 Likes
He is the third most liberal justice, and has been for some time now.
8 Likes
The headline could be: “Supreme Court Justice Has Huge Ego.”
A bummer, but not exactly shocking…
7 Likes
Horrible system when we depend on deaths or voluntary retirements to replace justices. Really need to do away with this lifetime shit and make them term limits, maybe shuffle them down to lower courts to keep it constitutional.
21 Likes
Pray that Dem senators in states with GOPer governors remain healthy. Patrick Leahy’s health scare last January scared the crap out of me. Then again, I wouldn’t mourn excessively if Ron Johnson took a long walk off a short pier into shark-infested waters.
18 Likes
Any system that ends up with someone like Trump deciding a third of the courts justices for multiple decades to come is truly a “horrible system”. But we just can’t move past our own antiquated ideals and traditions.
16 Likes
God you’re old, and because I got it so am I.
15 Likes
You have to… be prepared to modify your views.
Conservatives don’t have to modify their views, because they’re ideologues.
3 Likes