Stephen Breyer has cultivated a reputation as a pragmatist on the bench. And with the news Wednesday that he intends to retire from the Supreme Court, he’s shown a willingness to be a realist in the realm of politics, too. irin reports
Photo: Ron Sachs/CNP/Getty Images Justice Stephen Breyer has cultivated a reputation as a pragmatist on the bench. With reports today that he intends to retire, he’s shown a willingness to be a realist in the realm of politics, too. The decision, made while Democrats still hold a narrow majority in the Senate, paves the way for President Biden to make good on his promise to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.
But Breyer, who in a prior life was chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, could see for himself what happened when Ruth Bader Ginsburg, having declined to retire during the Obama administration, died weeks before the Trump presidency ended. “This is a huge step in preserving his legacy in a way that Justice Ginsburg failed to do,” said Leah Litman, a law professor at the University of Michigan.
Alongside Biden’s choice of running mate, the pledge resonated, law professor Melissa Murray told me just before Biden was inaugurated. “That it wasn’t an either-or, that it could be a both-and,” she said. “To the extent that women of color and Black women in particular supported this ticket, it was on the strength of what they saw as a commitment to lift up a group that has historically been overlooked.
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