🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will announce his retirement from the Supreme Court on Thursday after 14 years on the bench, giving President Joe Biden an opportunity to nominate someone.
After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death gave former President Donald Trump a last-minute nomination, Democrats pressured Breyer to retire after Biden won the presidency. The 83-year-old resigning would give Democrats a guarantee that his seat would go to a liberal justice, eliminating the risk of the court swaying even further to the right.
While Breyer resisted calls for him to retire for months, news broke on Wednesday that he would retire at the end of the court's term in October. He is set to appear with Biden on Thursday, and the president will deliver remarks about Breyer's retirement.
The remarks are scheduled to take place at 12:30 p.m. ET. While a live stream wasn't yet set up on the White House's YouTube channel, it is likely to broadcast the remarks, as are many news outlets and C-Span.
The White House avoided making remarks on the news that Breyer was reportedly retiring. White House press secretary Jen Psaki posted on Twitter that the White House would follow the precedent that a Supreme Court justice decides if, when and how they want to retire.
However, Psaki confirmed during Wednesday's briefing that if a position on the Supreme Court opens up, Biden is still committed to nominating a Black woman. There's no official short list for who Biden may be considering, but one of his options has already garnered Republican support in the Senate.
Three Republicans—Senators Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski—voted to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Supreme Court has much higher stakes than lower court confirmations, so there's no guarantee the three Republicans would vote in favor of her for the Supreme Court.
Plus, Republicans may try to delay the confirmation process until after the midterms in the hopes that they regain control of the Senate. It only takes a simple majority in the Senate to confirm a Supreme Court nominee, which Democrats currently have with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.
If Republicans take back control of the Senate in November, their opinion on the nominee would hold more weight and could push Biden to nominate someone whose views are more moderate than some Democrats would want.
Former President Barack Obama tried to fill a seat left vacant by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia but faced pushback from Republicans. Given that the vacancy occurred in a presidential election year, Republicans said that it was the duty of the next president to decide who should fill that seat.
Ultimately, they were able to postpone the nomination process until former President Donald Trump took office. He nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch, who was successfully confirmed. Years later, Trump had the opportunity to nominate Judge Brett Kavanaugh to fill Justice Anthony Kennedy's seat upon his retirement.
Democrats were unsuccessful in delaying the replacement of Ginsburg until after the 2020 election and Republicans confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett in October. Her confirmation strengthened an already conservative court, changing the makeup from 5–4 to 6–3.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is pushing for a quick confirmation process and Democrats are certain to push for a confirmation before the 2022 midterms. While Republicans can try to delay the process, if Democrats are united, they won't be able to block anyone that Biden nominates.
About the writer
Jenni Fink is a senior editor at Newsweek, based in New York. She leads the National News team, reporting on ... Read more