No, I'm not even talking about the conservative wing here. Ever since Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to retire, which led to conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett replacing her under the Trump administration, liberals have been going through a range of emotions. They were devastated that the face of the liberal wing had passed. They were also mad at her for not hanging up her robes under the Obama presidency when he could have kept that seat in liberal hands. And believe me, Obama knew as well, even trying to coax her in that direction during a private lunch in July 2013. We're talking about the equally aging Stephen Breyer. The pressure campaign to get this man to leave began this year in the hopes that liberals can keep another seat in safe hands. Yet, with the term about to expire, Breyer seems to be having none of it (via Boston Globe):
The pressure campaign started months ago. Outside the US Supreme Court in April, a billboard truck with a black-and-white image of 82-year-old Justice Stephen G. Breyer circled the grounds, neon green letters blaring, “Breyer, retire.”
That unsubtle message, paid for by a progressive group, has been adopted by liberal law professors and politicians, fueled further by the renewed threats by Republicans to block President Biden from appointing a Supreme Court justice.
If anyone is built to withstand the pressure, it is Breyer, who has given no indication he plans to retire when the Supreme Court’s term ends in the next few weeks. The senior member of the court’s shrinking liberal minority, Breyer railed against public misperceptions of justices as “junior level politicians” just this past April during a two-hour lecture at Harvard Law School, and has expressed a deep fear that the nation’s highest court could lose public trust if its members are seen to be guided by politics.
[…]
The consternation among Democrats over Breyer escalated last week, as Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged he may not let Biden replace the justice if Republicans win back the Senate next year.
So, when you hear liberals talk about institutional integrity, there is a host of moments you can choose where they did the exact opposite of honoring that principle, but this is a glaring one. Forcing a sitting justice to retire so you can either keep the seat in liberal hands or, even worse, force him to retire to get a person of color there to satisfy your woke cravings is exactly why Breyer and the late Ginsburg wanted to keep SCOTUS miles away from the drama on the Hill. Nothing says institutional integrity like forcing cogent judges to flee because you want cultural Marxists taking their spot. Separation of powers is only good until it isn't, right?
Look, I may not have liked Sotomayor or Kagan on a host of opinions, but they're not commies. They're liberals. And while I never supported them, they weren't unqualified to do the job. Right now, the folks Biden would be forced to pick should there be a Supreme Court vacancy would be a bunch of lefty looney tunes.
Breyer should do whatever he damn well pleases. This is a stupid debate. He had a lifetime appointment and if liberals respected the Supreme Court instead of using it to enact their social agenda, they would see that. If the Left truly wants to change the country, we have these things called elections. Pass a law. And when items like Critical Race Theory are left bloody and beaten because they've been exposed as perpetuating warped historical analyses that are fictitious—then maybe you should pick items that are—I don't know—popular. Free college isn't popular. High taxes aren't popular. Stop backing stuff that sucks. You're going down the wrong avenue to enact change, kids.
.@tedlieu: "My recommendation would be the same as Rep. Jones and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which is that I do believe that [Justice Breyer] should retire prior to the midterms.” pic.twitter.com/iMN3f3xwQW
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 15, 2021
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