Last summer, when fellow progressives began heckling Justice Stephen Breyer to retire immediately, I defended him in part as follows in “Re Justice Breyer: To Retire, or Not to Retire, That Is (Not) the Question,” July 3, 2021:
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Full disclosure, I am probably more progressive/liberal than Bernie Sanders and AOC. More to the point, I am probably also more pragmatic than Joe Biden and James Clyburn.
That said, I sympathize with the anxieties that are causing progressives to pressure Breyer to retire. But their pressure amounts to political impudence and bullying in equal measure. Hell, you’d think they know more, or care more, about the fate of American democracy than he does.
Frankly, they seem too consumed with their own self-righteousness to appreciate how Breyer might be reflecting on the way they hailed RBG as a living icon, but then pissed all over her grave just because she failed to retire according to their political calculations.
But why would, indeed how could, any eminent justice give even the appearance of basing this seismic decision (in so many respects) on pressure from a left-wing mob…? RBG did not. Breyer will not. And no justice should.
It is self-evident that the prudent thing to do is to leave Breyer to his own wise counsel – to do the right thing … in a timely manner.
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Sure enough, Breyer vindicated my belief in his wisdom yesterday:
Justice Stephen G. Breyer will retire at the end of the current Supreme Court term, according to a source familiar with his plans, giving President Biden the chance to make his mark on the Supreme Court by nominating the first African-American female justice and reinforcing the court’s liberal minority.
(The Washington Post, January 26, 2022)
I rest my case.
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