Retired from Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer rejected calls that Justice Sonia Sotomayor should step down from the bench, saying she is a “spring chicken.”
Breyer told Fox News host Shannon Bream, “I think anybody can say whatever they want, you know. And I think when I retired, I was 83. But Justice Sotomayor is not , he’s a spring chicken.” “Fox News Sunday.”
There have been calls in recent months, including op-eds like Published in The Atlantic, That Sotomayor retired under the Biden administration. The latest pressure on the judge to resign comes ahead of the presidential election, with left-leaning pundits and academics arguing that President Biden and the Democrat-controlled Senate could approve a nominee before the presidential election.
“I think there’s a difference. He’s a spring chicken and I’m an old rooster. We’re there. But people can say what they want. It’s up to the judge to decide what to do,” Breyer said.
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Retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer joins “Fox News Sunday.” (Fox News )
“If you want, you can stay there till you are 150,” he said of a lifetime appointment to the country’s highest court. “But in my mind, at least there comes a time and I think 83, 84, 85 — I don’t know how many 80s you want in there — but it’s time for someone else,” he said.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks at the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson, Mississippi, on August 17, 2019, about her career and the writing of several books, including an autobiography, “The Beloved World of Sonia Sotomayor.” (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Sotomayor is 69 and has served on the court since 2009, when President Barack Obama appointed her to the post following the retirement of Justice David Souter at the age of 69. Sotomayor, who has Type 1 diabetes, is the oldest liberal. Supreme Court justices, but he is younger than both Justice Samuel Alito, 74, and Justice Clarence Thomas, 75, who are both conservatives.
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Members of the Supreme Court pose for their official portrait on October 7, 2022. They are seated, from left, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Elena Kagan, and standing, from left, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Olivier Doulieri/AFP via Getty Images)
Liberal pundits argue If Sotomayor does not retire under the Biden administration, Republicans could take control of the White House and Senate after the election, meaning Sotomayor would have to remain on the bench until Democrats nominate a liberal-leaning justice. Don’t restart the controls to enroll, or risk it. Losing the seat to a new, young conservative judge if GOP nominee Donald Trump takes the White House.
Breyer also reflected on his friendship with the late Justice Antonin Scalia in his interview with “Fox News Sunday”, despite the two having radically different legal opinions. The interview comes as Breyer promotes his new book, “Reading the Constitution: Why I Choose Pragmatism, Not Textualism,” which criticizes conservative judges for their decisions to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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Breyer is a pragmatist, meaning he sees laws as created by specific social contexts, while textualism interprets laws and constitution based On its “plain meaning”, not its intention, Law definitions reflect,
Breyer said that years ago, he and Scalia, a conservative stalwart who identifies as a textualist, met with students at a football stadium in Lubbock, Texas, where both justices met with students, telling them that the legal Opinion argued that the pair are still close friends despite ideological differences. Difference.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia testifies before a House subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 20, 2010. (Reuters)
“They will Never seen a Supreme Court judge, And we talked about it, and before you know it… it was obvious to him, we liked each other. It was also clear that we did not agree. So I said, ‘Look, this document was written 200 years ago, in 1788, 1789.’ I would say, ‘Look, things have changed. Prices do not change. Freedom of expression symbolizes certain values, but what it applies to changes.’ So I say, you know, ‘Nino, George Washington didn’t know about the Internet,'” he said.
“And Nino says, ‘I knew it,'” Breyer said of his debate with Scalia, whom he affectionately calls “Nino.” Scalia died suddenly of a heart attack in 2016 at the age of 79.
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“So he says, ‘Stephen, the problem with your approach of looking at these different things is that it’s too complicated. It’s too complex. You’re the only one who can do it.’… But then I tell him Say, ‘If we follow your vision, we will have a Constitution that no one will want.’ And so you have the gist of the argument,” he said.
