Democrats are starting to panic regarding the state of the Supreme Court if Joe Biden loses the upcoming election.
To that point, Justice Sonia Sotomayor is now on their radar, and the cries for her to retire will grow louder after reports surfaced that she has been traveling with a medic at times.
Talking Points…
- Calls for retirement
- Sotomayor traveling with medic
- Analysis
As the Democrats and leftist organizations did with Justice Steven Breyer, they are now going after Justice Sotomayor to retire so that Joe Biden can name a liberal replacement for her to ensure that Democrats do not lose another seat on the bench.
Numerous reports have surfaced over the last month of outside groups pressuring Justice Sotomayor to step down. Sotomayor is now 69 years old and one of the four oldest justices on the bench, but all of the other justices who are 69 or older are conservative justices. With the fear of Trump beating Biden in the upcoming race, that means she is the target one to retire so the bench does not swing to a 7-2 advantage of conservatives.
Molly Coleman, the executive director of People’s Parity Project, a progressive activist group, has hinted that while Democrats are trying to remain calm in front of the cameras, that is not necessarily what is happening behind the scenes. She stated:
“It’s absolutely a conversation that’s being had.
“But the public conversations are very different from the behind the scenes conversations.”
Sotomayor has diabetes, and in 2018, she was treated for low blood sugar, but what most of us were unaware of is that she had reportedly been traveling with a medic to ensure there were no issues. For instance, in 2018, not long after she had been treated for low blood sugar, she traveled with a medic from Colorado on a trip to Florida. There were also U.S. Marshals records that a medic may have traveled with her in October 2018 for stops in Tennessee and Illinois.
In 2021 and 2022, the U.S. Marshals Service recorded “medical gear” or “baggage/medical supplies” traveling with the justice, so it would appear that she had a medic traveling with her during the four trips when that was noted.
Gabe Roth, the executive director of Fix the Court, who obtained the records from the U.S. Marshals, noted that for the first 150 years of this country, the average tenure was only 15 years, but that has since doubled. He stated:
“Fifteen years was the average tenure for ... [U.S.] justices for the first 150 years of our republic.
“In the last 55 years, that number has now doubled. But the idea that Justice Sotomayor might be considering staying on the court until, I don’t know, Naomi Biden [the president’s granddaughter] is president, is probably not something a lot of folks would want to see.”
This is a very tough cycle for Democrats, especially with how Joe Biden is polling right now. If Donald Trump wins this election, it could be more than a decade before Democrats get back into the White House. There is also the fact they control the Senate right now, and who knows what will happen in 2024 even if Biden defeats Trump in the election. If the GOP takes back the Senate, they cannot get anyone confirmed anyway.
If Biden does manage to beat Trump, it is a safe bet that Republicans will win back the White House in 2028. So, I can understand the urgency here in having her replaced, but Sotomayor seems dead set on remaining on the bench for the foreseeable future. However, this could be Ruth Bader Ginsburg all over again, which would likely send liberal organizations on an all-out attack to increase the number of justices on the court.
If Trump wins and the GOP manages to hold the White House in 2028 and 2032, it is a safe bet that Alito, Thomas, and Roberts will all retire and be replaced with another conservative. But if Sotomayor needs to step down during that time, we very easily could see a 7-2 tilt on the court that would ensure conservative control for decades to come.
