The 83-year-old United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer is reportedly retiring at the end of his term this Summer.
The SCOTUSblog, an independent news outfit providing analysis on the Supreme Court, announced on Wednesday Breyer's intentions to retire soon.
"BREAKING: Per @PeteWilliamsNBC of @NBCNews, Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring. The 83-year-old Breyer, a pragmatic liberal who has served on the Supreme Court for nearly 28 years, is expected to tell the White House imminently of his intention to step down," SCOTUSblog said in Twitter.
NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck cited a CNN report stating that there's "politics" behind Breyer's announcement. WND said Breyer "has been the target of virulent campaigns by leftists to get him to quit."
"CNN's Jessica Schneider: Breyer "has been a really vocal member of the court...talking about how politics should not permeate the high court. That has been his consistent message, but perhaps today...potentially politics playing a role in Justice Breyer's decision to step down," Houck tweeted on Wednesday.
Accordingly, Breyer needs to be replaced by "someone equally leftist, by a leftist president, to avoid the possibility that a GOP president after 2024 would replace him with a conservative."
Last September, Christianity Daily reported that Breyer have already warned the Democratic Party who want him out of the Supreme Court that doing so would affect the court's credibility. Democrats want him to retire so that a younger liberal judge would be appointed to replace him through President Joe Biden.
The intent comes out of the Democrats wanting to increase their hold in the Senate where they currently have a "very slim majority," which is seen to affect the outcome of the midterm elections this year. Breyer in September negated such pressures by keeping stern on his stand to stay but not beyond his retirement. Whenever it will be, he said, is up to him to consider the matter.
"I'm only going to say that I'm not going to go beyond what I previously said on the subject, and that is that I do not believe I should stay on the Supreme Court, or want to stay on the Supreme Court, until I die," Breyer said.
"And when exactly I should retire, or will retire, has many complex parts to it. I think I'm aware of most of them, and I am, and will consider them," he added.
In addition, CBN News highlighted that the Democratic Party are after Breyer's retirement since they could lose control of the Senate and--with projections showing the midterms coming out to be mostly Republican--would mean "very tough Senate election battles in the fall." Democrats are reported to be "racing the clock" to replace Breyer "while they still have the power to approve his replacement."
Biden announced previously that his criteria for nominating a replacement justice would be based on gender and race with the intent of appointing a first Black woman for the post. If such is the case, CBN News said it would make the court an "all-female progressive wing of the high court" since current Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor are the most leaning members in it.
Notwithstanding such pressures and intent, Yahoo News said, "Breyer's retirement won't help Democrats gain much more power on the court, where conservatives now hold a 6-3 majority. But it will help them avoid losing any more of what little power they have." Though such a move "could alter the court's approach to some issues" such as "criminal justice."
Breyer, a California native, was nominated to the Supreme Court by former President Bill Clinton. He officially started his office on August 3, 1994, making him in the service for almost three decades.
