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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo think you know when your last day will be is the height of arrogance.
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Liberals are desperately hoping the 83-year-old jurist will step down soon, while theres a Democrat in the White House and the partly still narrowly controls the Senate. They fear that if Breyer doesnt call it a career, he will join the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in being replaced by an arch conservative who will undo any legacy of progress he had hoped to achieve. But the justice has shown no signs of budging.
Breyer, the avuncular former Harvard law professor best known for issuing mind-boggling legal hypotheticals from the bench, has been stubbornly resisting those calls, even while milking the speculation for coverage of his new book. Over the past week, hes given an unusual number of media interviewsinterviews that have been, as most Supreme Court justice interviews are, rather opaque and pedantic and not especially newsworthy. On Fox, after waving around his pocket Constitution like a bespectacled Ammon Bundy, Breyer launched into a discussion about Alexander Hamilton and a civics lesson on the three branches of government, before Wallace got to the question on everyones mind: his potential retirement.
Wallace showed Breyer a clip of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who said in no uncertain terms back in 2012 that he did not want a Democratic president to replace him with someone who would undo all the work hed done over 25 years to move the court to the right. In response, Breyer said, I dont intend to die on the bench, but beyond that, he explained that he didnt retire this spring because, well, he didnt want to. I didnt retire, because I decided on balance that I wouldnt retire, he said.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/09/justice-breyer-fox-news-supreme-court/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Hootsuite
Link to tweet
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FoxNewsSucks
(10,375 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)People who believe in themselves and what they singularly offer during their time on the high court have to weigh the consequences of removing themselves prematurely and unnecessarily.
Now, Justice Kennedy's timed resignation and request to tRump to replace him with legal scum like Kavanaugh, who'd oppose much of what would be Kennedy's legacy, is a whole different matter. Few could believe that was done out of a sense of duty and responsibility.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Stephen Breyer isn't on the list.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)RBG wouldn't have considered herself indispensable either, btw, but she obviously felt she still had important work she needed to do before stepping down.
I understand pressuring sitting justices, but I also feel it's...arrogant to believe justices don't have a very big duty to use their best judgement.
secondwind
(16,903 posts)SYFROYH
(34,127 posts)Having said that it would be nice if the justifies okayed chess instead of checkers with their retirements.