Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to retire

By Wolf Blitzer and Ariane de Vogue | CNN

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to retire, giving President Joe Biden the chance to be nominated to the bench, a source close to the matter told CNN.

Breyer, 83, a consistently liberal voter on the Supreme Court with an unflinching belief in the US system of government and a pragmatic view of the law, has served nearly three decades in the chair. reserve.

Breyer is expected to stay on for the rest of his term and a replacement has been confirmed.

Breyer’s decision gives President Joe Biden his first chance at a Supreme Court nomination. While Biden’s pick won’t change the balance of the court, as Breyer will almost certainly be replaced with a liberal colleague, the new candidate is expected to be much younger and able to serve on the court. courts for decades. The court currently has six conservative justices appointed by Republican presidents, and three liberal judges appointed by Democrats.

Appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, Breyer sought to focus the law on how it might work for ordinary people. He is not a man of firepower and is quick to say that the Supreme Court cannot solve all of society’s problems. He often emphasizes that the courts should not be seen as part of political branches but recognizes that certain opinions may not be universal.

Breyer told an audience at Harvard Law School in 2021: “It is wrong to see the courts as just another political institution.

He warned: “If the public views judges as ‘politicians in robes,’ then their trust in the courts and in the rule of law can only diminish, diminishing their power. court, including its power to act as a ‘check “on other branches.”

Along the way, Biden vowed that if he got the vacancy, he would fill that vacancy with an African-American woman who would represent the first person in history to the supreme court. Potential candidates include Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, who was confirmed last year in a powerful DC-based appeals court. She served as a law clerk for Breyer, as well as an assistant federal public defender and served on the United States Sentencing Commission.

Another possibility would be Justice Leondra Kruger, 45 years old, who serves on the Supreme Court of California and is a veteran employee of the office of the United States Attorney General. Members of Biden’s team have previously emphasized that they are seeking diversity for judicial appointments and that they are ready to go beyond the norm and consider people with legal experience in the past. history is not presented on the federal bench, including public and civil rights defenders and legal aid attorneys.