President Bill Clinton appointee Justice Stephen Breyer to retire after more than 27 years on the US Supreme Court.
Justice Stephen Breyer speaks on the issues of international law and transnational questions that come before the U.S. Supreme Court. Image courtesy of Brookings Institute.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will step down from the US Supreme Court at the end of the current term in the middle of the year. He is one of the three remaining liberal justices with conservatives outnumbering liberal justices 6-3. With the Democrats dominating the Senate, this gives US President Joe Biden the opportunity to maintain the status quo — President Donald Trump’s there appointments, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, had seen the Supreme Court skew increasingly conservative. He is retiring after four decades on the federal bench and 28 years on the United States Supreme Court.
Justice Breyer notably wrote the court's opinion striking down a state law that banned some late-term abortions in 2000 and dissented, seven years later, when the Supreme Court upheld a similar federal law passed by Congress. He supported affirmative action and other civil rights measures. In a 2015 dissent he said the death penalty in America had become so arbitrary that it was probably unconstitutional.
Everyone knows that Stephen Breyer has been an exemplary justice — fair to the parties before him, courteous to his colleagues, careful in his reasoning.
While President Biden has said he would look to nominate the nation’s first Black woman to the Supreme Court — which some Republicans say is discrimination — the White House has confirmed three outside advisers, who are veterans of politics and communications, will navigate President Biden’s eventual Supreme Court pick through the Senate confirmation process.
The nomination team will be led by former senator Doug Jones; former political director for President Clinton, Minyon Moore and former campaign and White House spokesman for President Obama, Ben LaBolt — the three will report to White House counsel Dana Remus. These outside advisors bring decades of experience and will work with President Biden's White House team.
The president’s focus is … choosing from a wealth of highly qualified candidates who bring to bear strong records, credentials and abilities to serve on the court in a lifetime appointment.
President Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee well aware of how the confirmation process works, is expected to quickly nominate a successor who can be ready to serve when the new term begins in October.
The White House officials currently advising the President on his selection, in addition to Remus, will include Vice President Kamala Harris, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Director of Legislative Affairs Louisa Terrell, White House Senior Advisor Cedric Richmond, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs Reema Dodin, Senior Counsel to the President Paige Herwig as well as Counsel to the Vice President Josh Hsu.
