Below is my column in Fox.com on the recent suggestion that Justice Sonia Sotomayor should step aside for a younger justice in the interest of extending a liberal voting block on the Supreme Court. It is part of a growing number of calls for changing the Court that range from buying out justices to sweating them out.
Here is the column:
“I live in frustration ... To be almost 70 years old, this isn’t what I expected.” Those words from Justice Sonia Sotomayor appear to resonate with some liberals, but not in the way intended by the jurist. Some activists and journalists are beginning to nudge Sotomayor to leave the Court in order to be replaced by a younger jurist, much as was done to Justice Stephen Breyer in 2021 and 2022.
On CNN, journalist Josh Barro bluntly wondered why Sotomayor remains on the bench when younger jurists could be brought on to guarantee a liberal vote for years to come. He indicated that many liberals are frustrated with her for not stepping down: “I find it a little bit surprising, given what Justice Sotomayor describes there about the stakes of what is happening before the Supreme Court, that she’s not retired. She’s 69 years old, she’s been on the court for 15 years.”
Sotomayor gave her frank assessment of being “tired” and “frustrated” during an appearance at University of California’s, Berkeley. She suggested that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority contributes to her daily burden. It was a notable interview not only for its content but for its moderator, UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
Chemerinsky previously shocked many in the legal community by denouncing Sotomayor’s six conservative colleagues as “partisan hacks.” In response to Chemerinsky’s probing, Sotomayor took an implied swipe at her colleagues and declared: “I live in frustration. Every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart. But I have to get up the next morning and keep on fighting.”
She added that the workload is overwhelming: “There used to be a time when we had a good chunk of the summer break. Not anymore. The emergency calendar is busy almost on a weekly basis.”
Many clearly would like to see her lessen that load by following the pattern of former liberal colleague, Justice Breyer, who retired in 2022. Demand Justice, a liberal group that has pushed court–packing as a solution to the Court’s conservative majority, drove a billboard truck through the streets of Washington with slogans like “Breyer, retire. Don’t risk your legacy.”
At 69, Sotomayor shows no signs of mental decline. She has been a highly effective justice, stepping into the vacuum created by the death in 2020 of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Of course, few ever questioned the “Notorious RBG” in her decision to stay on the Court, despite her much older age and longer tenure. While some of us noted that Ginsburg was taking a huge risk in not allowing then-President Barack Obama to pick a successor, she remained on the Court in spite of medical problems and ultimately was replaced by Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
Ginsburg, however, was almost 20 years older than Sotomayor. There is no concern for deterioration or death on the bench in Sotomayor’s case. It is simply a matter of swapping out justices like light bulbs before they burn out.
The grumbling from the left reflects the raw political calculations that are now commonly applied to the Supreme Court. Justices are treated as cutouts for partisan outcomes; the worth of a justice is now largely seen as her potential longevity rather than her jurisprudence. Sotomayor‘s seat is viewed as a lock for liberals, who want to trade for a new model before the new year (and a possible Republican president)
None of this is surprising in a time when law school deans have called
Seton Hall Law Assistant Dean Brian Sheppard treated such turnovers on the Court in strictly transactional terms, calling for Congress to “buy out” justices by offering them “large sums of money.”
Georgetown Law Professor Josh Chafetz and others are interested in taking a more active approach to making continuation on the Court as unpleasant as possible — at least for conservatives. Chafetz previously declared that the “mob is right” in targeting and harassing justices, and he told a law school panel in 2022 that “I want to suggest that courts are the enemy, and always have been.” He suggested that Congress should retaliate against conservative justices by considering the withdrawal of funding for law clerks or even “cutting off the Supreme Court’s air conditioning budget.”
When the audience laughed at that absurd suggestion, it reportedly triggered fellow panelist and Harvard law profe
Apparently, it is better to do that than wait for some biological clock to toll. By cutting off the air conditioning daily and harassing justices at home nightly, activists may finally induce some jurists to flee the Court.
These are the voices that dominate at some of our leading law schools, teaching students that opposing views should not be tolerated on our highest court. Doerfler is correct about one thing: There is nothing laughable about what they are suggesting. We must decide as a people if we will protect our courts or will reduce their makeup to a simple matter of turning up a thermostat.
Jonathan: So what else of importance is in the news? Plenty.
For starters, many of us questioned whether the FBI recovered all the classified material when they searched Mar-a-Lago in 2022. Jack Smith’s team is questioning witnesses about a locked room and a so-called “hidden room”, behind a dresser, the FBI did not search. We do now DJT had the lock changed on the one room before the FBI search. We also know Walt Nauta moved a lot of boxes around to avoid detection. The FBI didn’t even know about the “hidden room”.
So will Jack Smith want to get another warrant to search Mar-a-Lago? And what might be in the two rooms? I suspect they contained more classified docs and maybe even large nude photos of Stormy Daniels. You know, the important stuff!
Then, in the NY civil fraud case against DJT that ended last week Judge Engoron indicated he would issue his decision on 1/31. It’s Friday and no decision yet. Why the delay? I think it has something to do with Barbara Jones, the financial monitor, and her 1/26 final report to Judge Engoron. In her report Jones indicates DJT received a $48 million “loan” from a DJT Chicago entity. But Jones could find no loan docs for the “loan”. More evidence that DJT continues to engage in persistent fraud? No doubt Judge Engoron is going to include the final report in his decision. More devastating bad news for the Trumpster!
Trying to distract from the real news of the day Dennis?
House Judiciary Committee Subpoenas Fani Willis
https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/02/house-judiciary-committee-subpoenas-fani-willis-fulton-county-da-donald-trump-corruption/
Reading daily caller is like believing everything Tucker Carlson said was the truth.
You are denying the House Judiciary committee issued a subpoena to Fani Willis?
That is like denying the sun rises in the East just because you dont like the source.
Would it make your little feewings better if it was the NYT, or CNN?
“Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been subpoenaed by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan to produce documents related to the use and spending of federal funds, according to copy of the subpoena obtained by CNN. … The Fulton County district attorney’s office has rebuffed a number of Jordan’s earlier demands for documents.”
Time will tell whether she provides these docs.
Here, this will make your little feewings feel better,
CNN Senior Analyst Warns Biden That Independents Trending More Conservative Should Keep Him ‘Up At Night’
https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/02/cnn-errol-louis-joe-biden-democrats-losing-independent-voters-david-chalian/
Just in case you cannot read, it is a article about CNN, a CNN SENIOR Analyst from CNN.
Did you get it is about CNN?
so the Russian Hoax….explain why for 4 years….they attacked Trump over a Hillary Conspiracy?
Why is Hillary allowed to work with Russians and foreign spies?
FishWings, Apprentice Bribery Biden Baghdad Bob, posted: Reading daily caller is like believing everything Tucker Carlson said was the truth.
Reading FishLips is like watching the years CNN and the rest of the Soviet Democrat propagandists assured FishLips and the rest of the Soviet Democrat Marxist Useful Idiots that the Clinton/Obama/Biden/DNC “Russia Dossier” was actually verified US intelligence agency truth. Physical evidence, no less!
Oh…. and following that, the same Soviet Democrat propagandists assuring FishWings that the laptop belonging to The Bagman Formerly Known As The Crackhead Kid was merely ‘Russian election disinformation’.
Need a reminder of the long list of Soviet Democrat political commentators and Marxist Mainstream News Media who kept regurgitating just those two specific lies, FishLips?
Rachael Mad Cow
Joy Reid
The Joe And Mika Adultery Show
The Yentas Of The View
The Repulsive Reverend Al Sharpton
… shall I continue with the list?
Fani will undoubtedly defy the subpoena and the people supporting the prosecution Trump for resisting a DOJ subpoena will cheer her on.
Edward Mahl,
They are such upstanding citizens, never would they consider doing something so corrupt like, oh, I dunno, hiring their secret boyfriend to head up a case he has no experience in, with a huge salary, that he then using to take her on vacations.
What does this have to do with Justice Sotomayor?
Maybe Marx, Lenin, and Engels, Orwell, and others of that lot should NOT be required reading until the brain matures, if ever.
Cherminsky and Chafetz would have been happy to preside over Stalin’s show trials. They view the law as a weapon to eliminate the opposition. They are antithetical to the practice of constitutional law. They are a cancer on legal education
Who talks better, Biden or a baby? You be the judge:
https://twitter.com/stevenvoiceover/status/1749933987315740940
Maybe She’s just feeling like the rest of Us, just tired of all this and wants to back away.
The; Immature Advocacy, the serious Advocacy being Weaponized, the Objectification of Jurist, the Political Party influence upon the Branch, … and seeing America decline in reality, the Bronx at the Texas US Boarder growing greater everyday, Her Mothers passing in 2021, Single and no Children, Fed-Up with it, and has had enough.
Wondering what’s ‘out-there’ in another phase/passage of Her Life.
Why not retire from the Bench, Your not alone Sonia.
Just have it let it go
Wait, I thought Biden was going to be impeached? I thought Hunter was going to spill the beans that his Dad was the mastermind behind extorting millions from foreign governments. Proof was just minutes away! But…nothing. So now you move on to Sotomayor?
Perhaps you should pull out those Hunter porn tapes. The proof has got to be there somewhere. Please, get out those hunter porn tapes.
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh.
Meanwhile Uncle Tom Thomas is in the pocket of some rich guy on some exotic vacation somewhere.
But Sotomayor is the hot topic of the day. Can you spell the word “distraction”
Not exactly a substantive comment, nor is Justice Sotomayor the target of conservatives. It’s been a very long time since activist justices have had to “feel the pain” of not being able to “drive” decisions. Still, as Professor Turley notes, Justice Sotomayor has been “highly effective.” I’d be willing to bet she knows what a woman is, too.
No offense. But your reading comprehension is atrociously bad even for a sixth grader. Sotomayer is not the “hot topic” discussed in Turley’s essay.
The theme is that left wing trash with money (Demand Justice) and left wing trash with status (like the far left law school deans and law profs) are using their influence to try to push Sotomayer out because of her age. The same trash are also trying to rig the system to push conservatives out because the left wing trash are bullying azzholes who don’t like them.
Your response is to ramble incoherently about other things.
The old adage, ‘sometimes it’s better to remain silent and be thought of as ignorant than to speak up and remove all doubt” resonates here.
Well said.
Good on you for putting Bob in his place.
Well Jonathan, judging by the hard core socialist leaning attitudes of many law school professors, they will eventually succeed in packing the Court to get their way. Shouldn’t be too much longer. In the meantime, the temper tantrums will continue unabated…..
As noted by others, Sotomayor is *already* a blatantly partisan, activist Justice, but there is no possible way older people of any political persuasion could ever satisfy the insanity, prejudice, and narcissism that is younger and woke. It really is a cancer. Let’s hope it devours itself without taking the rest of us down in the process, never to achieve such heights of malignancy again. I don’t particularly care for her views, but I’ll defend anyone for being accused of not being compliant or stupid enough in their subservience to hostile ignorance. Criticize, disagree all you like, but then, leave her alone.
Wokesters: the world is a window, not a mirror for you to spend the entirety of your life preening in.
James,
Well said.
With luck, they will load a radioactive bullet and put it in their malignant brain housing group.
@Upstate
I suspect that’s true. The question for me is how much damage will be done in the process. We have too many abject failures across our society to hope to count at this point. No. You do not have to be a perfect family in a suburb with 2.5 kids. You do have to use your g*ddamn brain and think of the people around you, and what the future implications of actions are, for everyone. Modern progressivism is the height of personal privilege and selfishness, not community or unity, and it needs to burn a fiery death. If they were ever worth anything, than the sane will recover, but I am not holding my breath, aristocracy is aristocracy. This mindlessness is absolutely de rigueur across the West at present. It is hilarious that they think they are doing anything but placating themselves, or that somehow the people that dictate to them consider them equals in life; this is not new. Not new at all. The actual brave among us are going to have to turn the tide, and that may mean never retiring. Those that naysay this must be pretty dang privileged already. enjoy your brownstones. Those places are not going to maintain their integrity either, and it’s a small planet. Perhaps all of the rich will be in Costa Rica in ten years.
She is a horrible Justice and I hope she resigns in Trump’s last year of 2028. She did “replace” RBG didn’t she?
Jonathan: The Q is not whether Justice Sotomayor will make way for a younger Justice but what are we going to do with Justices Thomas and Alito? That is the question you should be asking.
Thomas and Alito are the principal reasons the public holds the SC in so low respect. The two have virtually sold their votes to the highest bidders–accepting lavish gifts and trips from billionaires with business before the Court. Thomas’s case is even more egregious because his wife was a participant in trying to overturn the 2020 election. Yet Thomas has refused to recuse himself in cases where he has a direct conflict of interest.
Sotomayor has no reason to retire. Seventy is the new sixty. The longest serving Justice William O. Douglas–almost 37 years. She has only been on the court for 15 years. Hardly a time of thinking to retire.
On the other hand, there are likely a great many more people who see Justices Alito and Thomas as holding the pass at Thermopylae. If, in fact, any justice had actually violated federal ethics rules, s/he would and should have been impeached.
Mistress, unfortunately the Spartans at Thermopylae were defeated due to a traitor showing the Persians the back way into the famous gate. Sounds about right for today’s world.
Accusing Thomas and Alito of corruption is no better than attempting to force Sotomayor to quit. Both are attempts to intimidate the Court. This comes from one our leading moralists.
Very strange – the body of this editorial seems to have disappeared, leaving only the comments…
Oh FFS, how hard is it to find out what Thomas and Alito are gonna do and do the opposite?
Heck, it’d be even easier to call larry tribe and ask him what he’d do.
Or she could simply ask herself, ‘what would be the worst possible outcome for honest productive people without a kill fetish’ and do that.
But, if those are still too hard, I hear the airlines are hiring.
You do know that the plurality of decisions are unanimous, right?
Right, so even if she did just vote opposite alito and thomas, no SCOTUS decision rendered during her term would have changed.
Reflexive opposition? Not exactly what one should want in terms of judicial temperament.
You do know that the plurality of decisions are unanimous, right?
This was inevitable. Once the Court became a super legislature, finding rights in the penumbra, it was bound to become hopelessly politicized.
If I were her, I would tell them to pound sand!
No one should have employment for life. The President of the United States doesn’t enjoy such liberty nor should anyone else. Congress should be the appointed
branch with a set time to appoint a replacement. And while they are doing this include Judges to their hatchet.
What do they have against Sonya from the Bronx? She’s an intellectual lightweight and votes as she’s told. What more do they want?
Bingo!
The judiciary is supposed to be a non-political branch. But for the Left in America, every aspect of life is political, and therefore every area of life ultimately gets corrupted by that reductionist approach. Think of wokeism for example. It all goes back to Karl Marx. And their own lives are impoverished, as they impoverish ours. If all of life is politics, the richness of the full breadth of human experience is lost.
What is most troubling (but not really surprising) is that Sotomayor refers to court decision contrary to her opinion as losses. I can see how she might refer to such decisions as mistakes, but not as losses. Referring to them as losses makes it clear that she is partisan. Like I said, troubling but not surprising.
Hunter is looking for a job….or maybe the legal mind of AOC
Democrats Truly HATE AMERICA
Sooner or later their lunacy compels them to eat their own.
Just keep voting Democrats into office and these lunatic academics and other leftist elites will eventually get a 9-0 ultra liberal court. This IS NOT a laughing matter, before the current administration we all would have laughed this kind of rhetoric off as a joke. We better wake up because if we continuously lose elections the joke will be on us.
13-0