(Wall Street Journal) Despite calls from some liberal activists for Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step down while Democrats can fill her seat before Inauguration Day, she has no plans to retire from the Supreme Court, people close to the justice said.
“This is no time to lose her important voice on the court. She just turned 70 and takes better care of herself than anyone I know,” said one person close to the justice, suggesting that progressives turn their attention to other ways of safeguarding the Constitution after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Sotomayor, appointed in 2009 by then President Barack Obama, is the senior member of the court’s liberal minority, which by custom makes her its leader. Outnumbered by six conservatives, including three appointed by Trump during his first term, the liberals have increasingly been reduced to dissenting opinions that argue the majority has made grave errors on matters from abortion rights to presidential power.
Sotomayor, who has written a bestselling memoir and children’s books, appeared on “Sesame Street,” and championed civics education, is among the better-known justices. In February, a Marquette Law School poll found that while many Americans were unfamiliar with the court’s membership, Sotomayor was viewed more favorably than any other justice.
“This would probably be a good day for Sotomayor to retire,” David Dayen, executive editor of the liberal American Prospect magazine, wrote the day after the election on social media. The same day, the former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, noting the justice has had Type 1 diabetes since childhood, resurfaced his April op-ed suggesting that it was time for Sotomayor to go.
