US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire

[ghazi52]

US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire​

Liberal US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire later this year after nearly three decades on the bench.

His decision ensures President Joe Biden will have an opportunity to nominate a successor who could serve for decades.
But Justice Breyer's replacement will not shift the court's current 6-3 conservative majority.

It comes as the court considers several hot-button issues.


Justice Breyer is expected to retire at the end of the current Supreme Court term in June.

Why it matters​

The court plays a key role in American life and is often the final word on highly contentious laws, disputes between states and the federal government, and final appeals to stay executions.

Each of the nine judges - known as justices - serves a lifetime appointment after being nominated by the president and approved by the Senate.

Democrats have been pressuring Justice Breyer - who, at 83, is the oldest member of the bench - to retire so they can fill the seat with someone younger while they control the White House and Senate.

The last Supreme Court vacancy came in 2020, when liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at age 87. Former President Donald Trump was able to appoint her successor, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, less than two months before the US presidential election.

Progressives like New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly called for Justice Breyer to step down.

A van hired by the group Demand Justice and carrying the words "Breyer Retire" has also been seen driving around Washington.
According to multiple sources, Mr Breyer is "upset" over the leaked news because he "was not planning to announce his retirement today".

What happens next?​

Mr Biden has previously pledged to nominate a black woman to the court for the first time if a vacancy opens.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the president would honour that commitment.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, a former law clerk to Mr Breyer, is believed to be the top contender for the job.

Ms Jackson was confirmed last June to a seat on the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in which she succeeded current Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Leondra Kruger, 45, who serves on the California Supreme Court, is another possibility.

Another tipped contender is J Michelle Childs, a judge on South Carolina's federal court.

In a statement, the top Democrat in the Senate called the outgoing Mr Breyer "a model jurist".
"President Biden's nominee will receive a prompt hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will be considered and confirmed by the full United States Senate with all deliberate speed," Senator Chuck Schumer said.

A welcome respite for Biden​

Anxious liberals who have endured a string of Supreme Court disappointments in recent years can exhale, at least for a moment. Justice Breyer is going to retire, giving Joe Biden the chance to name a replacement that can be confirmed while Democrats control the US Senate.

The move won't alter the conservative tilt of the high court, which Donald Trump cemented with three appointments in four years. It will, however, ensure Justice Breyer will be replaced by someone who could conceivably hold the seat for decades.

The confirmation process to fill the vacancy should provide a welcome respite for a president who has been buffeted by legislative defeats and bad domestic and international news in recent months.

If all goes smoothly - admittedly, no guarantee - the choice has the potential to remind liberals why having a Democrat in the White House is important and culminate in a Senate vote with a rare (for this president) successful outcome.

Who is Justice Breyer?​

A San Francisco native and Harvard Law graduate, Mr Breyer was appointed to his position in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.
Over 27 years, he wrote more than 500 opinions and was among the high court's most consistent liberal voices, delivering notable rulings on topics like gay marriage, healthcare, voting rights and the death penalty.

Known for his collegiality and prolific penmanship, he has expressed concern in recent years over the increasing politicisation of the court, telling an audience in 2021 that "it is wrong to think of the court as another political institution".

In 1967, Justice Breyer married Joanna Hare, the daughter of John Hugh Hare, a former chairman of the British Conservative Party and the First Viscount of Blakenham. The couple both attended Oxford University as undergraduates.

US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire

The White House confirms President Biden would stand by his pledge to nominate a black woman.

www.bbc.com

 

[SaadH]

Biden will appoint a centrist (Republican light) to replace liberal Justice Breyer.

US is a right wing dictatorship with a majority right wing supreme court that has control over all major decisions of consequence in the country, it can usurp and undo anything the electorate decides through democratic process.

Watch it dismantle Roe Vs. Wade in the near future, then onto bigger and better things.

 

[ghazi52]

Here are potential nominees who have been on observers' short list.

DC Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson​

Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, testifies during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing.

Biden has already elevated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once, appointing her last year to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is considered the second-most powerful federal court in the country. Previously, the 51-year-old judge served on the federal district court in DC. Because of that appellate appointment, she's already been through a vetting process that included an interview with the President himself. Fittingly, she clerked for Breyer and holds degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School. She also served as an assistant federal public defender, making her a prime example of the Biden's White House focus on appointing judges with backgrounds that are outside the typical prosecutor and Big Law box.
As a judge, Jackson has ruled on high profile cases including the Don McGahn congressional subpoena lawsuit (where, as a district court, she ordered the former Trump White House counsel to comply with the House's subpoena). As an appellate judge, she signed on to the recent opinion ordering the disclosure of Trump White House documents being sought by the House January 6 committee. The Supreme Court declined Trump's request that it reverse the decision in an order this month allowing the documents to be released.

California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger​

In this Dec. 22, 2014, photo, Leondra Kruger addresses the Commission of Judicial Appointments during her confirmation hearing to the California Supreme Court in San Francisco.

Kruger, now 45, was the youngest person to be appointed to the California Supreme Court when then-Gov. Jerry Brown nominated her in 2014.

Kruger is intimately familiar with the Supreme Court having worked as a clerk for the late Justice John Paul Stevens and served as acting deputy solicitor general in the Obama administration. While in the Solicitor General's office, she argued 12 cases in front of the Supreme Court representing the government. At the Justice Department, she also earned the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, the department's highest award for employee performance, in 2013 and 2014.

At the California Supreme Court, she has authored notable opinions on the 4th Amendment -- holding that law enforcement could not search a woman's purse without a warrant after she declined to provide a driver's license -- and upholding a California law that requires law enforcement to collect DNA samples as well as fingerprints from all persons arrested for or convicted of felony offenses.

Though she is said to be well-liked among the alumni of the Solicitor General's office, she has not yet received the thorough vetting that other potential nominees have gone through.

South Carolina US District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs​

Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court, listens during her nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 16, 2010.

Childs, a judge on South Carolina's federal court, is said to have a major booster in House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a Biden ally who helped deliver South Carolina for the eventual nominee in the 2020 Democratic primary. Just last month, Biden nominated Childs to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the nomination remains pending.

A graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Childs does not have the Ivy League pedigree shared by eight of the nine justices. Her cheerleaders have touted her public-school education and other elements of her background as an advantage for Democrats, according to a 2021 New York Times report, and as a way to fight back against claims that the party has become too elitist in its makeup.

In addition to a decade spent in private practice, the 55-year-old served as a state court trial judge on the South Carolina Circuit, as the deputy director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and as a commissioner on the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission.

Other names that have been floated​

Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights attorney who recently announced plans to step down from her role as President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Sherrilyn Ifill, of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, speaks with reporters outside the White House on July 8, 2021.

Anita Earls, a 61-year-old North Carolina Supreme Court associate justice whose age would likely hamper serious consideration from Democrats looking to seat a younger nominee on the high court.

Anita Earls, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina


District Judge Wilhelmina "Mimi" Wright, a judge on Minnesota's federal district court whose consideration would likely please Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee.

Wilhelmina Wright speaks to the media after her appointment by Gov. Mark Dayton to the Minnesota Supreme Court on August 20, 2012.


Circuit Judge Eunice Lee, a former New York public defender whom Biden nominated to the Second Circuit on the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Eunice C. Lee testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for judicial nominees on June 9, 2021.


Circuit Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, an alumna of Chicago's public defender's office whose appointment by Biden to the Seventh Circuit was cheered by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Candace Jackson-Akiwumi testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations on April 28, 2021.

 

[ghazi52]

Consider this:


1. A Supreme Court nomination is very big news in Washington, likely driving the rest of the news -- Ukraine, Covid, inflation etc. -- off the front pages and leads of cable news. (The CNN homepage currently is dominated with the Breyer news.) That's good news for Biden on two fronts: a) he gets to do the job only a president can do in picking a new justice and b) he gets to change the subject from places where the public has very much soured on his approach.

2. There is nothing quite like a Supreme Court opening to fire up the bases of both parties. Former President Donald Trump routinely used openings on the court -- and even possibilities of openings on the court -- to keep Republicans who had grown weary of his personal antics in line. The court opening will serve as a reminder to the Democratic base -- if they needed one -- that the stakes for these jobs couldn't be higher, particularly as the court considers overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal in the United States.

3. Biden can make a historic pick that will drive enthusiasm among Black voters. Remember that during the 2020 primary campaign, Biden pledged to nominate a Black woman to the court. If Biden makes good on that promise, he would make history, as no Black woman has served on the nation's highest court. Doing so could also help Biden with Black voters, who not only propelled him to the Democratic nomination in 2020 but who also form a central piece of the Democratic base. That opportunity couldn't come at a better time for Biden; just 60% of Black voters approve of how Biden is handling the job in the Pew survey.

All of that is not to say the court pick is completely absent of political peril for Biden. We've seen presidents botch seeming slam dunks (George W. Bush nominating Harriet Miers comes to mind).

And as the last few weeks have made clear, Senate Democrats have a very tenuous majority in the chamber. Biden will have to make sure that whoever he nominates has a very good chance of winning the votes of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin -- or run the risk of seeing the nominee defeated.

That said, Breyer's retirement is rightly understood as a life raft being floated to Biden. It gives him a chance to change the narrative -- of mismanagement and decline -- that had crept into his presidency over the past few months. And, as importantly, a good old court fight should enliven a Democratic base that had looked increasingly moribund of late.

 

[cloud4000]

Biden will appoint a centrist (Republican light) to replace liberal Justice Breyer.

US is a right wing dictatorship with a majority right wing supreme court that has control over all major decisions of consequence in the country, it can usurp and undo anything the electorate decides through democratic process.

Watch it dismantle Roe Vs. Wade in the near future, then onto bigger and better things.

With the Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, Biden will appoint a liberal judge to the bench. They risk losing the Senate in the next election and should take the opportunity now to get a Supreme Court judge appointed.

 

[Gripen9]

With the Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, Biden will appoint a liberal judge to the bench. They risk losing the Senate in the next election and should take the opportunity now to get a Supreme Court judge appointed.

Manchin & Sinema (Dems in Name Only) will torpedo anyone remotely liberal just like they have hamstrung Biden's agenda. Who needs republicans when you have the likes of these 2.

 

[IbnAbdullah]

Salaam

Here are potential nominees who have been on observers' short list.

DC Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson​

Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, testifies during her Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing.

Biden has already elevated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson once, appointing her last year to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is considered the second-most powerful federal court in the country. Previously, the 51-year-old judge served on the federal district court in DC. Because of that appellate appointment, she's already been through a vetting process that included an interview with the President himself. Fittingly, she clerked for Breyer and holds degrees from Harvard and Harvard Law School. She also served as an assistant federal public defender, making her a prime example of the Biden's White House focus on appointing judges with backgrounds that are outside the typical prosecutor and Big Law box.
As a judge, Jackson has ruled on high profile cases including the Don McGahn congressional subpoena lawsuit (where, as a district court, she ordered the former Trump White House counsel to comply with the House's subpoena). As an appellate judge, she signed on to the recent opinion ordering the disclosure of Trump White House documents being sought by the House January 6 committee. The Supreme Court declined Trump's request that it reverse the decision in an order this month allowing the documents to be released.

California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger​

In this Dec. 22, 2014, photo, Leondra Kruger addresses the Commission of Judicial Appointments during her confirmation hearing to the California Supreme Court in San Francisco.

Kruger, now 45, was the youngest person to be appointed to the California Supreme Court when then-Gov. Jerry Brown nominated her in 2014.

Kruger is intimately familiar with the Supreme Court having worked as a clerk for the late Justice John Paul Stevens and served as acting deputy solicitor general in the Obama administration. While in the Solicitor General's office, she argued 12 cases in front of the Supreme Court representing the government. At the Justice Department, she also earned the Attorney General's Award for Exceptional Service, the department's highest award for employee performance, in 2013 and 2014.

At the California Supreme Court, she has authored notable opinions on the 4th Amendment -- holding that law enforcement could not search a woman's purse without a warrant after she declined to provide a driver's license -- and upholding a California law that requires law enforcement to collect DNA samples as well as fingerprints from all persons arrested for or convicted of felony offenses.

Though she is said to be well-liked among the alumni of the Solicitor General's office, she has not yet received the thorough vetting that other potential nominees have gone through.

South Carolina US District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs​

Judge J. Michelle Childs, who was nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court, listens during her nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 16, 2010.

Childs, a judge on South Carolina's federal court, is said to have a major booster in House Majority Whip James Clyburn, a Biden ally who helped deliver South Carolina for the eventual nominee in the 2020 Democratic primary. Just last month, Biden nominated Childs to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the nomination remains pending.

A graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Childs does not have the Ivy League pedigree shared by eight of the nine justices. Her cheerleaders have touted her public-school education and other elements of her background as an advantage for Democrats, according to a 2021 New York Times report, and as a way to fight back against claims that the party has become too elitist in its makeup.

In addition to a decade spent in private practice, the 55-year-old served as a state court trial judge on the South Carolina Circuit, as the deputy director of the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and as a commissioner on the South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission.

Other names that have been floated​

Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights attorney who recently announced plans to step down from her role as President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Sherrilyn Ifill, of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, speaks with reporters outside the White House on July 8, 2021.

Anita Earls, a 61-year-old North Carolina Supreme Court associate justice whose age would likely hamper serious consideration from Democrats looking to seat a younger nominee on the high court.

Anita Earls, an associate justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina


District Judge Wilhelmina "Mimi" Wright, a judge on Minnesota's federal district court whose consideration would likely please Sen. Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota Democrat who sits on the Judiciary Committee.

Wilhelmina Wright speaks to the media after her appointment by Gov. Mark Dayton to the Minnesota Supreme Court on August 20, 2012.


Circuit Judge Eunice Lee, a former New York public defender whom Biden nominated to the Second Circuit on the recommendation of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Eunice C. Lee testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for judicial nominees on June 9, 2021.


Circuit Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, an alumna of Chicago's public defender's office whose appointment by Biden to the Seventh Circuit was cheered by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin of Illinois.

Candace Jackson-Akiwumi testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations on April 28, 2021.

Why does it feel like it's more about political point scoring instead of competence with this list? All potentials listed are women of colour.

How does the US expect to compete with China and the rest when even the most long term with such priorities when considering positions of such importance?

I can also see such lists would further antagonise the right wing and widen the divide further. I know some people pretend like this political division isn't a major problem for the US when it comes to its long term competitiveness on the global stage but I don't think it's the case now given the rise of China and shifts happening on the global stage.

It's how it is said that when the Mongols were advancing on Baghdad, the Muslims were bickering on little technical details and had lost sight of the bigger picture. The US seems to be moving in the same direction as the Chinese make gains on US power and influence.

 

[SaadH]

With the Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, Biden will appoint a liberal judge to the bench. They risk losing the Senate in the next election and should take the opportunity now to get a Supreme Court judge appointed.

Biden has never been liberal his whole life, rather a corporate Demo, in fact Senator from Amway.