One of the least discussed aspects of the interview with President Joe Biden last night was his declaration that two of the nine justices are not long for the Court. The question is which two are facing retirement or the reaper.
In arguing for his remaining as the nominee despite record low polling, the President told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos with certainty that the next president “in going to appoint at least two new appointees.”
That must be uneasy news for the relatively small court that almost of a third will soon pass . . . one way or another.
Liberals have been pushing Sonia Sotomayor to retire, but she has clearly rejected those calls. 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.”
At 70, 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.
All of the justices are younger than Ginsburg when she passed (and considerably younger than President Biden who is running for a second four-year term).
- Justice Thomas, 76.
- Justice Alito, 74.
- Justice Sotomayor, 70.
- Chief Justice Roberts, 69.
- Justice Kagan, 64.
- Justice Kavanaugh, 59.
- Justice Gorsuch, 56.
- Justice Jackson, 53.
- Justice Barrett, 52.
Justice Clarence Thomas is the oldest, but has not indicated that he is ready to retire. He would likely want to wait for a Republican president.
If history is a measure, he has time. Oliver Wendell Holmes retired at 90.
A recent analysis of the court’s projected composition suggested the next time the majority of justices will be appointed by a Democrat is likely to be around 2065.
I did not find that analysis particularly compelling. However, I also fail to see how Biden can be certain that 2 of the 9 justices will die or retire. After all, even Thomas is six years younger than Biden. If he is predicting the death or retirement of Thomas within four years, he would presumably predict his own passing or retirement years ago.
Running on the pledge to replace two departing justices could prove awkward if the justices are reluctant to be replaced or dispatched. This is not the first time that such premature claims led to the inconvenient lingering of the subjects:
The troll’s desk..
is like a three way mirror.
He’s surrounded by himself..
writing bogus dialog for puppets on-screen.
Multiple reflections of the same creep.
Smirking as he clicks away, warping a blog.
But then he spots Puppet Watch, smirking at ‘him’!
PUPPET WATCH
A California-based non-profit
PUPPET WATCH
Mid-Afternoon Edition
Saturday, July 6th
Only 66 comments as of 2:20 Eastern Time. That’s very light traffic by recent standards. And the absence of most established puppets accounts for this low turnout.
In fact this is that rare day where the list of ‘missing’ puppets exceeds that of puppets present.
Former rising star Waters is still missing. Missing too is Traveler, Waters onetime sidekick. They were quite a pair 2 weeks ago.
No Margot Ballhere, Whimsical Mama, Thinkthrough, James, Hullbobby, Edward Mahl or Guy Ventner. And no Estovir ‘yet’; though one comment by Floyd.
Floyd Estovir is leaning more and more on green anonymous with at least 15 comments so far. There his cynical voice comes through unmistakably. Floyd Estovir’s voice is also heard in one comment from a Richard Stantz Phd.
Curiously there was a single, unremarkable comment from Richard Head. Readers might recall that Richard Head McGillicutty was once used as Floyd Estovir’s most obnoxious, in-your-face puppet. Yet today Richard Head appears as just a lowly member of the Morning Greek Chorus Bots.
The best-known puppets present are led by Upstate Farmer with only 5 comments so far. Farmer and green anonymous are essentially the tent poles today. Old Man From Kansas posted twice as did GEB. Then Speak Up, Skyraider and ZZdoc each logged one.
Oddly Tin and Lin posted back to back as though someone at a keyboard merely changed ‘T’ to ‘L’.
The Morning Greek Chorus Bots include Bendan A Sinclair, Dave, Kevin T Kilty, Kristen Oren, Denise n Bruce, Garland, Creekan, Daniel Wolf, and Prole.
FRIDAY’S late afternoon-early evening time block was dominated by Floyd, Estovir and malicious green anonymous.
This was a bad idea on Floyd Estovir’s part. By using all three, as an almost solitary trio, for that length of time, the trolls let readers see how totally alike these three really are.
Raymond Stantz PhD
“Raymond Stantz, PhD, is a fictional character from the Ghostbusters franchise. He appears in the films Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), Casper (1995, as a cameo), Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), the animated television series The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, and the video games Beeline’s Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009), Planet Coaster (2019), Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed (2022) and Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord (2024). He was portrayed by Dan Aykroyd in five live action films, and voiced by Frank Welker in the animated series. He is a member of the Ghostbusters and one of the three Columbia University professors of parapsychology, along with Dr. Peter Venkman and Dr. Egon Spengler.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Stantz
The oldest SCOTUS jurist is 76. Based on the most recent Social Security actuarial table, a man who makes it to 76 years of age, on average, can expect to live another 10.3 years.
Biden is 82. The same actuarial table indicates that an 82 year old man, on average, can expect to live slightly less than 7 more years.
He’s far more likely to die during his hypothetical second term than the oldest SCOTUS jurist.
He also said, “If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’
I’d get out of the race. The Lord Almighty’s not coming down.” Biden
Biden declares God’s future moves.
Biden thinks he is a svengali and above God, or biden is just a smart aleck spewing he is not bowing out.
I predict God will come down and smite that punk out of the race.
jotard and the democrat criminal organization wouldn’t be obsessed with SCOTUS if they had popular, legal ideas…
The Democrat Party and Joe Biden are urging voters to choose a dementia patient to reelect for president of the US, at a time when war looms, in order for Democrats to have the power to appoint up to two Supreme Court Justices. The US could be plunged into WWIII with FLOTUS Jill Biden leading Joe Biden by the hand to the War Room, but it’s SCOTUS that they want everyone focused on. To add a sense of urgency, they deliberately and with malice misrepresent SCOTUS rulings, with wildly erratic disinformation.
They’ll do anything to make you forget that when Trump was in office, there was record low unemployment, the border was secure, and groceries, gas, utilities, and rent all cost far less.
This is a perfect example of the difference between conservatives and liberals. If a supreme court decision doesn’t go their way, conservatives get busy trying to elect a Republican president and put more conservative members into the house and senate. If a supreme court decision doesn’t go the way liberals want it, they threaten them, sometimes with violence, and then try to find ways to either remove them from the Supreme Court using some type of trickery, or stack the Supreme Court with the liberals who think like they do. Same with the electoral college. When the electoral college allows a Republican president to win, liberals want to change the constitution and get rid of the electoral college. They believe that the little people in the fly over states should not have a say in who is president…. Only the liberals who pack the east and west coast should be able to decide who is president. Liberals are like a cancer that needs to be removed. They are by far the biggest threat to our constitution and our republic.
One of the most addictive things on earth is power over others. The Supreme Court has this in spades which is why the Democrats are so upset with the conservative bent of the current court. It is IMO unlikely that any of the Justices will retire to make way for new blood on the court, but just in case, the Democrats want to be in charge of who they will be.
Given the ruling in Trump V US, Biden could just execute the Republican members of SCOTUS. My guess is he is indicating that he will.
Yes, that is the sane, logical, rational, reasoning.
When leftists tell you they are totalitarian fascists, like Sammy, believe them.
The court was never supposed to be political. It was supposed to be centered on the constitutionality of laws and actions of both the lower courts along with government officials and their acts. The idea that a sitting judge should in anyway be pressured or even asked to step down prematurely because the individuals doing the asking (or pressuring) want to pack the court with judges from the political party they belong to.
This is antithetical to the very concept of the Supreme Court. Its not supposed to be about which party a member belongs to, its supposed to be about finding qualified senior judges and individuals with a depth of experience along with a demonstrated ability to set aside their own political party affiliations, if any, to focus on the constitutionality of any case brought before them.
THIS is what the court was and is supposed to be, and the problem is we have an entire elected leadership who have long since forgotten that fact.
Picking younger members because of presumed longevity goes against the very role of the court and says our elected officials are incapable of comprehending the purpose of the court. This is why the candidates need to be approved by Congress regardless of which party is in the majority. It was designed to encourage sitting Presidents to find candidates capable of setting aside party affiliation and voting with the constitution. Such a candidate it was perceived would be able to pass a congressional vote along both party lines assuming we elect public officials committed to making government work instead of being committed to party lines.
Now all we have is a football game going on from within our own Capital bldg. Red jersey’s on one side blue jersey’s on the other and no one working the center to actually get anything done.
THE COMMUNISTS THRIVE ON CORRUPTION, WHICH THEY CANNOT DO IF THEIR ACTS ARE DECLARED VOID, WHICH THEY ARE.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what they forbid.”
“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
“It’s [Corruption] That Matters!”
– Randy Newman
_____________________
What the communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) truly fear is the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and their inability under a conservative administration to corrupt, nullify, and void the power and force of those documents in order to impose wholly unconstitutional central planning, control of the means of production (i.e. illicit regulation), redistribution of wealth, and social engineering with the intent to take and give “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” per the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” rather than allow Americans to enjoy maximal freedom through self-reliance while government is severely limited and restricted.
There have been threats by the left to impeach Alito and Thomas for various reasons. I didn’t take them seriously because I don’t see the issue based on what I know; I thought that it was just venting. There are citizens who don’t like anyone to the right of Jackson, and don’t want them on the Court.
It’s similar to adding states and packing the court; they’re angry.
I’m sure that Joe will do his “goodest” if he gets a chance. Who ever thought that he’d destroy the southern border (let alone run from Afghanistan and other brilliant decisions he and his unelected committee have made)?
Dear Prof Turley,
Biden is older than the Grim Reaper and twice as deadly. Thx to the marvels of modern science, a combination of semi-human tissue over exotic metal alloy. A walking, talking ‘death rattle’ who feels no pain or pity or awareness and absolutely will not stop until Hitler is dead and the Nazi defeated.
Biden is the only one who can take on the Trump ‘greed is good’ Apostle and beat Medicare at the same time. Biden looked Putin in the eye and stole his soul, not to mention Russia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. Says he is going to give it to Zelenskiy’s gang as a token of good will. His record of accomplishments has been, until recently, beyond reproach.
He’s been around for long, long years and stole many a man’s soul and faith. He was around when Jesus Christ had his moments of doubt and pain. Made damn sure Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate.
Please to meet you .. . hope you guess my name.
*see also Special Counsel Hur’s report .. .
Turley forgot that two justices could face impeachment. Thomas, with his undeclared “gifts”. And Alito with his clear bias as noted with the flag issue and the secret recording clearly pointing out he prefers his personal views in lieu of what the law says.
Perhaps an impeachment inquiry would be appropriate if democrats win the house and the senate.
Absolutely – I would love to see Democrats try to impeach Thomas and Alito.
Nothing would give Republicans more power to clean house throughout the judiciary in a blatantly ideological fashion.
Do those of you on the left ever learn – violating norms is NOT something that only one party can do.
Merchan has delayed Trump sentencing the legal analysis I have heard is that Merchan CAN NOT sentence Trump.
The recent immunity decision not only requires an immunity analysis BEFORE indicting a former president for acts while president,
it has completely foreclosed everything involving Presidential advisors.
Judge Merchan allowed WH Staff to testify in the Manhattan Trial. The moment he sentences Trump there will be an appeal directly to the federal courts and possibly directly to the supreme court.
Merchan was told over and over again that the testimony of various witnesses was not allowed – for a long list of reasons.
Merchan was told of numerous serious legal problems with this prosecution.
Instead he went full speed ahead into due process and constitutional rights violations and the supreme court has essentially slapped him back to the beginning.
My prediction is that Merchan delays sentencing until after the election and then dismisses the case – because democrats want to be able to say “convicted felon” until the election is over.
Regardless – do not complain to the rest of us, when Republicans start using the lawless tactics you have engaged in.
The dual Trump faux impeachments have destroyed the claims of legal scholars like Turley and Derschowitz that there are any limits on the houses power to impeach or the Senates power to remove. The language in the Constitution “High crimes and misdemeanors” means absolutely nothing – because there is no review of congresses impeachment power.
So yes you can impeach Thomas and Alito – for any reason you want.
And Please do – ASAP so that Republicans can immediately follow by cleaning house through the federal judiciary.
That said – despite my agreement with you that Democrats may impeach Thomas and Alito if they wish.
That is not happening. Democrats are increasingly grasping that the Biden problem is more than about the president, it is more than a down ballot hiccup.
The entire Democratic party is complicit. Democrats are unlikely to control either the house or senate anytime in the near future.
Kluxxer George posted this Soviet Democrat grift:
Turley forgot that two justices could face impeachment. Thomas, with his undeclared “gifts”. And Alito with his clear bias as noted with the flag issue…
George… the mouthpiece for Soviet Democrat lies and misdescription and misrepresentation.
If Another Odd Communist or Maxine Waters said it, their Kluxxer grifter here, George, will obediently parrot it.
George never had any appetite for impeachment inquiries while Bolshevik Barack, The Magical Marxist Mulatto Clown was in office, nor now that Bribery Biden is delivering his Third Police State Fascist Term.
I would like to take a moment to congratulate Mr. Stephanopoulos on a pretty fair but hard hitting interview of the President. He focused throughout on the President’s mental and physical health. I have heard some criticizing him for not following up on some of the answers he received, but he didn’t seem to be holding back on the tough questions. (I think I would find it tough to ask someone repeatedly about their mental decline, as much or more than I would answering those same questions about myself.)
Good job, George!
Can’t imagine what would happen if Pres. Trump used these words.
This is great fun!
The Biden campaign is sitting on some $195m dollars in campaign funds. It cannot go to any other candidates other than the Biden/Harris ticket.
Biden is refusing to drop out. His handlers, Jill and Hunter, think they can hold out till the election and still have a chance of winning.
Meanwhile mega-donors are refusing to donate anymore funds to the Biden campaign, the DNC and any Democrats running for re-election.
More and more Democrats are calling for Biden to drop out or outright resign.
Even MSM has turned on Biden.
And then we have our delusional leftist friends, still trying to tell us not believe our own eyes and ears as we have been since 2020.
Fun! Fun!
It is worse than that. Democrats MUST formally nominate a candidate before August or that person will not be on the ballot.
Further there are apparently 6 states that have election laws that make it impossible to replace Biden at this time.
And with each week that passes the legal problems become even worse.
Trump is no up by more than 3 in RCP. Up by 5 in a multi-way contest, I beleive Harris’s odds of getting elected – while still abysmal now exceed Biden’s.
Gavin’s odds are less than half Harris’s
ALL the swing states are now +3 or greater for Trump and new states are coming into play everyday.
This is starting to resemble the Reagan Carter blowout in 1980.
Democrats for good reason are deeply concerned about downballot issues.
First people rightly view the entire party as complicit in Both hiding Biden’s incompetence and in the failures of his administration.
Next, one of the facets of this election from the start is that Core Trump voters are more than Twice as likely to vote as Core Biden voters.
And with near certainty that extends into less committed voters.
If Democrats do not show up at the polls – not only does Biden lose, but lots of Democrats lose.
Republicans could easily have commanding majorities in the house and Senate as well as control of the White House.
And the longer this goes on the worse the problem gets.
Democrats need a charasmatic candidate – ASAP – even if that candidate loses, just to get enough voters to the polls to avoid a blowout.
Relax. Big Mike will save us all.
We’re closer than ever to WW3, in large part due to
U.S. leadership so far this century on BOTH sides of the aisle,
and Upstate thinks the distraction of Biden’s Brain is “fun”.
Professor……Great post…..and love the Monty P. video. Thank you!
The Biden debate performance, by itself doesn’t show he has a serious problem. But it’s more than just one night. It’s a continuing issue, both before and after the debate that confirms the cognitive decline put us in jeopardy. As suggested here, “Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks.” Biden is not in any condition to nominate judges. He needs to be gone, now. Eash additional day is another step toward disaster for the United States.
The big deal about Biden’s debate performance is it exposed the lies of the media, and the left and the democratic party.
Biden was not all that bad. But EVERYONE saw him, and there is no cheap fake spin possible
All the more reason for a President Trump.
Dear Mr. Turley, The Democrats have used the courts for so long to get their way. Just the mere thought of not controlling the Supreme Court for the next 25 years has them in a panic. Mr. Biden was offering an olive branch to those who are seeking to remove him from the ticket. HIs staying in the presidential race and possibly winning, almost guarantees that he will get to select the next Supreme Court Justice. I am sorry for him. With strong arguments made on both sides, the voters will have the final say in November.
How does it guarantee that? There is no way to know if a sitting Justice will retire or pass away before 2029.
Hillary can make it happen.
Biden is older than Every single supreme court justice – and not one of them is showing the mental or physical decline that Biden is.
In the unlikely event that Biden is re-elected – it would be Harris who gets to appoint a supreme court justice.
Anything could happen – Lightning could Strike Jackson.
But the odds are no justices are retiring or dying in the next 4 years.