Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, said he is grappling with the decision of when to retire, amid a push from the liberal left for ...
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, said he is grappling with the decision of when to retire, amid a push from the liberal left for him step down before the next election cycle.
'There are many things that go into a retirement decision,' Breyer, appointed to the high court by President Clinton in 1994, told the New York Times. 'I don't think I'm going to stay there till I die — hope not,' he added.
Breyer admitted that he doesn't want to retire and have a successor appointed who will undo all of his work. He recalled a conversation he had with late Justice Antonin Scalia.
'He said, "I don't want somebody appointed who will just reverse everything I've done for the last 25 years,"' Breyer said.
'That will inevitably be in the psychology' of his decision, he said.
'There are a lot of blurred things there, and there are many considerations,' Breyer said of his retirement timing. He added: 'I don’t like making decisions about myself.'
Now down to a 6-3 minority in the Supreme Court, progressive Democrats have pushed the court's eldest justice to retire while they still have control of the White House and Senate, to avoid another showdown like that of Merrick Garland in 2016.
'There are a lot of blurred things there, and there are many considerations,' Breyer said of his retirement timing. He added: 'I don’t like making decisions about myself'
Breyer, second from right in the sitting row, is the oldest of the justices at 83
President Obama had appointed Garland to fill the seat of Scalia, but Republicans, then in control of the Senate, refused to hold a hearing for the judge. Some 293 days later, President Trump took office and filled the vacancy with Neil Gorsuch.
Further fueling liberal fury, Republicans pushed through Justice Amy Coney Barrett after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg weeks before Trump lost his bid for re-election.
GOP leader Sen. Mitch McConnell has already indicated he would play hardball again if Biden gets to pick a new justice while Republicans are in power.
Some Democrats have proposed expanding the court from 9 to 13 seats in order to swing it in their favor, an idea Breyer was wary of.
He argued it could trigger a tit-for-tat and reduce the court to a political institution.
'Think twice, at least,” he said of the proposal. 'If A can do it, B can do it. And what are you going to have when you have A and B doing it?'
He said doing so could hinder the rule of law.
'Why do we care about the rule of law? Breyer said. 'Because the law is one weapon — not the only weapon — but one weapon against tyranny, autocracy, irrationality.'
In a lecture to Harvard law school, Breyer spoke of the importance of the oath justices take to remain unbiased.
'If the public sees judges as politicians in robes, its confidence in the courts and in the rule of law can only diminish, diminishing the court's power, including its power to act as a check on other branches,' he said.
This year the liberal group Demand Justice organized a billboard truck to circled the Supreme Court with the sign 'Breyer, retire.'
Biden has pledged to nominate a black woman for the Supreme Court should a vacancy occur.
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