In a recent op-ed published in The Guardian, former CNN host Mehdi Hasan argues that Sotomayor should retire now in order to avoid a situation similar to that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away in 2020, allowing then-President Donald Trump to appoint a third justice to the Court. “With Joe Biden trailing Trump in several swing states and Democrats also in danger of losing their razor-thin majority in the Senate, are we really prepared for history to repeat itself?” Hasan asks. “Sotomayor will turn 70 in June. Of course, only Sotomayor knows the full status of her health, still it is public knowledge that she has had type 1 diabetes since she was seven; had paramedics called to her home; and is the only sitting justice to have, reportedly, traveled with a medic,” he continued. “To be clear: she could easily — and God willing — survive a potential Trump second term and still be dishing out dissents from the bench come 2029,” Hasan wrote. “But why take that risk? Why not retire now? Why not quit the bench at the same age that justices in Belgium, Australia and Japan are forced to do so?” Other Democrats recently interviewed by NBC News were reluctant to publicly join calls for Sotomayor to retire but did express concern over the prospect of Trump winning in 2024 and appointing another justice, creating a 7-2 conservative-appointed majority on the Court. “I’m very respectful of Justice Sotomayor. I have great admiration for her. But I think she really has to weigh the competing factors,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) told NBC. “We should learn a lesson. And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be. The old saying — graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.” Blumenthal said Sotomayor is “a highly accomplished and, obviously, fully functioning justice right now,” adding that “justices have to make their personal decisions about their health, and their level of energy, but also to keep in mind the larger national and public interest in making sure that the court looks and thinks like America.” Democrats have grown increasingly frustrated with the Court after being dealt blows to several key policy priorities through rulings in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which made abortion a state issue, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which provided further support for Second Amendment rights. As of late, Democrats frequently refer to the Court as “broken” and “illegitimate” while stepping up attacks through allegations of ethics violations, and even renewing calls to pack the Supreme Court to skew its balance toward the political left indefinitely. Less than a week ago, law professor Paul Campos warned that Sotomayor remaining on the bench through the 2024 presidential election poses a risk. “I think Sonia Sotomayor is a great Supreme Court justice, but I definitely think she ought to announce that she is stepping down from the Court this summer because the fact is that ... there is a very significant possibility that Joe Biden will not be able to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court during his second term because of Republican control of the Senate,” Campos said during an interview. “There's also a significant possibility that Donald Trump will be able to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court if he were to be reelected president and the GOP controls the Senate," he added. "The chance that one or both of those things will happen is so high that it just simply isn't worth it to take that kind of a risk. ... It would really be in the public's best interest for her to do a very statesmanlike thing and step down from the Court rather than running this risk, which would be a completely catastrophic development.” Josh Barro, writing in The Atlantic last month, blasted Democrats close to the Biden administration who privately express support for Sotomayor’s retirement, but won’t speak on it publicly amid concern over calling for the ousting of the first Latina justice. “This is incredibly gutless,” Barro wrote. “You’re worried about putting control of the Court completely out of reach for more than a generation, but because she is Latina, you can’t hurry along an official who’s putting your entire policy project at risk? If this is how the Democratic Party operates, it deserves to lose.”Power players in the Democratic Party are calling for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to hang up her robe and allow her seat to be filled before a Republican president has the opportunity to appoint a new justice.
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