Should Stephen Breyer retire now from SCOTUS (1 Viewer)

[GrandAdmiral]

Breyer is currently in his early 80s and calls are coming in for him to step down while Dems have both the Senate and the White House. Obviously, they don't want Merrick Garland 2.0.

So, should he call it quits now?

 

[V Chip]

If he waits and we end up with a Republican House/Senate/White House by 2024 (coin flip odds if we're lucky) then he dies we're going to see a 7-2 conservative majority in the SCOTUS. And you can be damn sure Thomas and Alito will take that as their cue to retire. We'll end up with seven conservative judges 65 or younger and every liberal policy will go there to die for the next 25 years.

I get that, but if he retires and we get a centrist, we’re just as screwed even if we win in 2024. Every judge appointed by a Biden presidency must be easily Liberal.

 

[Saintman2884]

Did you mean “her” or are you referring to someone else not ACB?

Bork should have never been nominated. It was political payback for his illegal actions taken to try to save Nixon in the Saturday Night Massacre. That alone should have kept him out of consideration, but yet Reagan nominated him anyway. He shouldn’t have gotten one vote for confirmation much less the 40-something he did.

Oh, the reasons for opposing and keeping Bork from being confirmed to SCOTUS had a lot more to do then just firing Harvard law professor Archibald Cox as Watergate independent prosecutor during the Saturday Night Massacre to try and keep Nixon in office a little while longer. In terms of its legality, actually the POTUS does have the power, under right circumstances, to fire any independent prosecutor but its politically dangerous and usually is seen by his political enemies as a sign of his desperation, and that indeed he does have something to hide.

But no, its not a fundamental legal absolute, Pres. Clinton could've fired Ken Starr during his years-long investigation into the Whitewater case and then once legal means their hadn't gone anywhere, an opportunistic Pentagon employee took advantage of a mentally depressed, and unhinged Monica Lewinsky, who'd been reassigned to the Pentagon by Clinton highly-placed staffers to get her away from their boss, started telling her stories to someone she believed she could trust, who unbeknownst to her, was secretly taping her confessional "confidential" talks to try and bring down a President she disliked and viewed as a hypocrite. But, if Clinton had likely fired Starr, whether its fair or not, he eventually suffers the same fate as Nixon did even if what he was accused of was tepid in its ramifications compared to Watergate scandal.

 

[Xeno]

I get that, but if he retires and we get a centrist, we’re just as screwed even if we win in 2024. Every judge appointed by a Biden presidency must be easily Liberal.

Manchin and Sinema won't vote for a very liberal judge. Republicans won't vote for any judge that isn't Federalist Society and nominated by one of their own. It's really a moot point entirely. The state of the Senate is, in a word, forked. The entire point the framers had in mind for the Senate has been turned on its head.

We have to hope Democrats can grab two more Senate seats in 2022 to make Manchin and Sinema irrelevant, otherwise the Republicans effectively still control it. And that assumes Warnock and Kelly win their 2022 elections, which I'm not sold on.

 

[Saintman2884]

Manchin and Sinema won't vote for a very liberal judge. Republicans won't vote for any judge that isn't Federalist Society and nominated by one of their own. It's really a moot point entirely. The state of the Senate is, in a word, forked. The entire point the framers had in mind for the Senate has been turned on its head.

We have to hope Democrats can grab two more Senate seats in 2022 to make Manchin and Sinema irrelevant, otherwise the Republicans effectively still control it. And that assumes Warnock and Kelly win their 2022 elections, which I'm not sold on.

I think its more likely than Warnock wins re-election in 2022 than Kelly in a relatively red state like Arizona. Warnock's main constituency comes from a safe, deep blue Democratic strongholds in northern Ga., and a huge, growing metropolitan power base of Atlanta. Kelly's chances are a little less certain.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

If he waits and we end up with a Republican House/Senate/White House by 2024 (coin flip odds if we're lucky) then he dies we're going to see a 7-2 conservative majority in the SCOTUS. And you can be damn sure Thomas and Alito will take that as their cue to retire. We'll end up with seven conservative judges 65 or younger and every liberal policy will go there to die for the next 25 years.

2024? They just need to retake the Senate next year and we're screwed.

 

[Xeno]

2024? They just need to retake the Senate next year and we're screwed.

2024 is their first chance to have all three but you're right. And like I said, I'd say we have 50/50 odds whether that happens or not at best.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Article on this
===========

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/21/democrats-very-real-nightmare-scenarios-supreme-court-stephen-breyer/

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Bringing this back up because of this arse right here. He makes his intentions clear as day.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Bringing this back up because of this arse right here. He makes his intentions clear as day.

was there any doubt?

 

[brandon]

Bringing this back up because of this arse right here. He makes his intentions clear as day.

I think it's bait. I think he's trying to get Biden to consider court-packing so they can pull the "see, they're just as bad as we are" card.

There's no other reason to put this information out there, even if it is the plan.

 

[zztop]

Came across this today:

Stephen Breyer says he's still mulling retirement

"I don’t think I’m going to stay there till I die — hope not," he told The New York Times.

www.politico.com

He cited the late Justice Antonin Scalia, whom he served on the court with, as saying he didn’t want his legacy on the court washed away by an ideologically opposed successor.

“He said, ‘I don’t want somebody appointed who will just reverse everything I’ve done for the last 25 years,’” Breyer said in the interview, which was conducted Thursday.

Breyer also signaled that he did not want to follow in the path of Scalia or Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both of whom died while serving on the Supreme Court in recent years. Those vacancies immediately became bitter political battles that were ultimately won by Republicans and shifted the ideological balance of the court to the right.

“I don’t think I’m going to stay there till I die — hope not,” Breyer said.

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

He'll retire before Biden leaves but that might be irrelevant if he doesn't do so before 2023 when the Democrats might not have control of the Senate. These things take a lot of planning. Justices hire clerks at least a year, often two years in advance. And while I'm sure that won't be the deciding factor I'm sure this guy doesn't want to extend job offers that ultimately won't be there if he retires.

 

[Saintman2884]

He'll retire before Biden leaves but that might be irrelevant if he doesn't do so before 2023 when the Democrats might not have control of the Senate. These things take a lot of planning. Justices hire clerks at least a year, often two years in advance. And while I'm sure that won't be the deciding factor I'm sure this guy doesn't want to extend job offers that ultimately won't be there if he retires.

Well, its also a bit rude and unprofessional if he were to hire several assistant SCOTUS law clerks, assistants, or pages and then barely a few months into their tenure, he decides to retire or more tragically, dies and an intense, protracted legal/judicial tug-of-war starts between Senate and House Reps, and the razor-thin Democratic majority trying to arrange SCOTUS confirmation hearings for whoever Biden's pick is to replace Breyer is and even if he does decide to retire before the 2022 midterms or after any presumptive GOP attempts to block any nominee, McConnell will try some legal BS self-righteous, sanctimonious stunt to say Congress or Senate should wait until after the 2022 midterms to decide on the matter.

People will call him out, of course, label him, once again a hypocrite, especially after Amy Coney Barrett rushed confirmation process late last year after RBG's death. But Mitch will use some whiny, pretensious excuse or maybe he'll be honest like he was in early 2016 and say he's just as determined to make sure Biden is a one-term President, unlike Obama, and he'll play hard, nasty and mean and try to cozy up to Sens. Sinema and Manchin to get their support in preventing IMHO, likely Merrick Garland to replace Breyer's SCOTUS seat.

Using or co-opting Manchin and Sinema for his own personal means is his new temporary. weapon, being the hardline, unmoving, uncompromising, Senate "Grim Reaper" defiantly preventing Obama from nominating a likely moderate or liberal judge to replace Scalia was his tactics in 2016 and his behavior related to that issue was him showing his true, legislative face.

 

[wardorican]

I think its more likely than Warnock wins re-election in 2022 than Kelly in a relatively red state like Arizona. Warnock's main constituency comes from a safe, deep blue Democratic strongholds in northern Ga., and a huge, growing metropolitan power base of Atlanta. Kelly's chances are a little less certain.

Kelly still has respectable approval ratings. He's an Astronaut. AZ isn't that red.

 

[SaulGoodmanEsq]

I actually see Kelly as a potential 2024 Presidential candidate assuming he wins reelection in 2022 and Biden does not run again.