(Daily Mail) A increasing number of Democrat intellectuals are calling for Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire now that President-elect Donald Trump is returning to the White House.
The 70-year-old justice, first appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009, faces concerns from the left about her longevity.
They want her to step down to allow President Joe Biden to replace her with a much younger liberal justice during his last weeks in office before Trump takes over on January 20.
‘Sotomayor should retire tomorrow and let the lame duck Senate confirm her replacement,’ wrote Miranda Yaver, a political scientist and assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor faces renewed calls to step down so President Joe Biden can replace her before he leaves office
The idea was first proposed in the Spring, as left-leaning intellectuals warned that it would behoove the nation’s first Latina justice to step down for the good of the ideological makeup of the court.
‘Why take the risk? You have a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate, and you have a justice who is about to turn 70,’ former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan said on CNN at the time, after writing a column for the Guardian calling for her to step down.
But Trump’s election victory has sounded the alarm once again.
Hasan shared his article again on social media on Wednesday. ‘I happen to think this piece of mine aged (sadly!) pretty well,’ he wrote.
Others agreed, saying it could be the Democrats’ ‘last chance to fill her seat for some time.’
Republicans are poised for a clean sweep of power in Washington with Trump in the White House, a new Republican Senate majority and control of the House most likely staying with the GOP.
Liberal journalist Josh Barro of the ‘Very Serious’ newsletter told the Washington Post: ‘It has been possible, historically, to go 12 or 14 years without simultaneous control of the White House and the Senate, after initially losing that control. She could be well into her 80s by the next time she has a good opportunity to retire.’
CNN analyst Bakari Sellers even proposed the idea of repacking Sotomayor with Vice President Kamala Harris, after he loss to Donald Trump.
‘You have a hell of a vice president right there who has a legal pedigree to sit on a Supreme Court,’ he said on CNN on Friday morning. ‘And let Republicans go crazy, ape, I’m even mentioning that option.’
U.S. President Donald Trump greets Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor after addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress
