Senate Democrats are rejecting calls for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire in order to allow President Joe Biden to appoint her successor while the Democratic Party controls the Senate. Some progressives and commentators fear that if Sotomayor doesn’t retire soon, it could take years for Democrats to have another opportunity to fill a seat on the court. They point to the example of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away in 2020 at age 87, allowing Republicans to establish a conservative majority on the court.
Sotomayor, who is 69, has Type 1 diabetes, which is not life-threatening if properly managed. Despite worries about the future makeup of the court, Senate Democrats like Dick Durbin and Elizabeth Warren believe Sotomayor is doing a great job and should continue to serve for years to come. However, some Democrats, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, have suggested that Sotomayor should consider the timing of any career decisions in light of the high stakes of Supreme Court appointments. Blumenthal clarified that he is not calling for Sotomayor to resign and believes it should be completely up to her to decide her future on the court.
The circumstances surrounding Sotomayor’s potential retirement are different from those of Ginsburg, who faced calls to retire in 2014 when she was 81 and had already battled cancer multiple times. Sotomayor, on the other hand, has had no major health issues. Some Democrats are pushing for legislation to establish term limits for Supreme Court justices to address concerns about justices serving for too long. They argue that if the current system is not to their liking, they should work to change the law rather than force justices to retire against their will.
Senator Mazie Hirono suggested that passing legislation to establish term limits for Supreme Court justices would be a fairer way to address concerns about the makeup of the court. She emphasized that justices have lifetime appointments and if people are unhappy with that system, they should work to change it through legislation. Despite concerns about Sotomayor’s history with diabetes, Hirono believes that forcing her to retire would not be the right approach. Other Democrats, like Senator John Fetterman, believe that it should ultimately be up to the individual justice to decide when to retire. Fetterman expressed confidence in Sotomayor’s ability to continue serving on the court.
