Justice Stephen Breyer to retire from the Supreme Court

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Stephen Breyer, a judge appointed in 1994 by Bill Clinton, is expected to retire from the Supreme Court soon.

A time trial is looming in the US Senate. On Thursday, Joe Biden is expected to announce, at the White House, the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, according to NBC News. At 83, the one who was appointed in 1994 by Bill Clinton is the oldest of the judges and one of the last three “progressives” – appointed by a Democratic president – against six conservatives, since Donald Trump brought three magistrates into the in the highest instance in the country. The other two are Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, both appointed by Barack Obama.

During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to appoint a black woman – who would be the first in history – as soon as a seat becomes available on the Supreme Court and the names of two favorites circulate, reports the “Washington Post” : Ketanji Brown Jackson, currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Leondra Kruger, who currently sits on the California Supreme Court.

Since the Democrats have reached a very fragile minority in the Senate, by which any appointed judge must be auditioned and validated, some have called on Stephen Breyer to retire so that they can take advantage of equality in the Senate and the decisive voice of Kamala Harris. , Vice-President and President of the Upper House. And thus prevent the Republicans from blocking any choice of the Biden administration, as they had done during the last months of Barack Obama’s mandate: they had refused to hear Merrick Garland, claiming that the death of conservative judge Antonin Scalia occurred in February 2016, nine months before the presidential election.

But Republican senators had no doubts when they heard and validated Amy Coney Barrett, nominated to succeed Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died less than two months before the ballot finally won by Joe Biden – she had been sworn in a week of the election, to the delight of the Republican billionaire. The prospect of the midterm elections next November and the precedent of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg undoubtedly entered Stephen Breyer’s thinking.

A sustainably conservative Supreme Court

With the appointment of three judges – Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, the two of whom have been embroiled in heated controversy over accusations of sexual assault against the second and the anti-abortion rights position of the third – , the Trump administration has permanently upset the balance of the Supreme Court. This is evidenced by certain recent decisions, in particular on the right to abortion, acquired at the federal level thanks to the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, now in danger with the upcoming review of very restrictive laws adopted by conservative states such as Texas or Alabama.

To read :Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who legalized abortion in the United States, has died

Sign of the high political significance of Stephen Breyer’s retirement: Donald Trump’s team has already launched fundraisers and calls for mobilization, assuring his supporters that Joe Biden was going to “appoint a PROGRESSIVE ACTIVIST”.

The judge himself had warned, last spring, of a political polarization of the Supreme Court: “If the public sees the judges as politicians in robes, their confidence in the courts and the law itself cannot be only diminished, diminishing the power of the court, including its power of control over the other branches.” But in the summer, in an interview with the “New York Times”, he quoted advice given by his former colleague Justice Scalia: “I don’t want someone to be appointed who is going to come back to everything I have done for the past 25 years. “I don’t think I’ll be here until I die…I hope not,” he said.

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