Stephen Breyer plans to retire from the US Supreme Court

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Stephen Breyer, a liberal member of the US Supreme Court, plans to retire this year, according to media reports, a move that will test President Joe Biden as he seeks to install a phased replacement.

Breyer, 83, is expected to step down at the end of the court’s current term in June. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Breyer “was and always has been a model lawman,” and pledged that Biden’s nominee would “get an immediate hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and it will be considered and confirmed by the Senate.” in the United States with all deliberate speed.”

When asked about the news at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, Biden told reporters, “There was no announcement from Judge Breyer. Let him make whatever statement he makes, and I’ll be happy to talk about it later.”

The older member of the Supreme Court has come under mounting pressure in recent months to step down so Biden can nominate a younger liberal for his life’s seat on America’s highest court. There are no time limits for Supreme Court justices.

While the retirement would not alter the court’s ideological balance between conservatives and liberals, it would give Biden an opportunity to ensure that Breyer’s seat goes to someone who shares similar views.

Breyer and former colleague Ruth Bader Ginsburg first faced calls to resign in 2011, when Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy argued in a controversial New Republic article that the two judges should step aside to allow then-Democratic President Barack Obama to choose their successors.

Ginsburg died in 2020 at the age of 87, just months before the end of Donald Trump’s presidency. She took her seat ahead of the November presidential election with Amy Connie Barrett, cementing a conservative 6-3 majority on the court seat.

Breyer, who was nominated by former President Bill Clinton, was a member of the court for nearly three decades.

Supreme Court justices are chosen by the presidents but require confirmation by a simple majority in the Senate. The installation process, which includes a series of public hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, has become one of the most politically charged events in Congress.

“I think it can move very quickly because the White House has been thinking about this for a year, even before that,” said Carl Tobias, a professor of law at the University of Richmond.

While presidential appointments in the past have received bipartisan support, that has changed in recent years. The Senate voted 52 to 48 to confirm Barrett, with Susan Collins the only Republican to vote against her confirmation and no Democrat supported her.

Trump’s other pick, Brett Kavanaugh, has also been mired in controversy amid allegations of sexual harassment dating back to his teenage years. It was eventually confirmed in a 50-48 vote in the Senate, with Joe Manchin as the only Democrat to support his nomination.

As a candidate for president, Biden has pledged to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court should a vacancy arise during his presidency. Only two black justices – Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas – have sat on the Supreme Court, and only five women have served as judges.

Kitangi Brown-Jackson, a judge on the powerful District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and Leondra Krueger, a judge of the California Supreme Court, are seen as among the main contenders for Breyer’s seat.

Jackson, who served as Breyer’s clerk on the Supreme Court in 1999 and 2000, was earlier confirmed by the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 53-44 during her nomination to the Court of Appeals last year.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not provide any details of the administration’s thinking about a candidate to replace Breyer, but said the president was “honoring” to his pledge to bring a black woman to the Supreme Court.

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When asked if Biden might consider Vice President Kamala Harris to fill the vacancy, Psaki replied, “The president has every intention . . . of running for reelection and running for reelection with Vice President Harris on the card as his partner.”

Dick Durbin, the Democrat from Illinois who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised Breyer as a “authoritative voice on the platform with a first-class legal mind” and said he “looks forward to urgently moving the president’s nominee” through the committee.

Lindsey Graham, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Breyer a “scientist and gentleman” but did not indicate any inclination to support Biden’s candidate.

“If all the Democrats come together — which I expect — they have the power to replace Judge Breyer in 2022 without a single Republican vote in support,” Graham said. “Elections have consequences, and that’s even more evident when it comes to filling vacancies in the Supreme Court.”

NBC News first reported about Breyer’s retirement. The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Additional reporting by James Politi

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