With the 2024 presidential election drawing near, there’s a debate brewing amongst some legal scholars if Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor should retire.

Sotomayor, 69, is the oldest Supreme Court justice appointed by a Democrat.

Some Democrats fear another Ruth Bader Ginsburg scenario could occur.

Ginsburg, a liberal justice, passed away during President Trump’s term, leading to the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett.

“Sotomayor has been an outstanding justice, but the Ruth Bader Ginsburg precedent ought to be extremely sobering,” said Paul Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, according to Huffington Post.

“The cost of her failing to be replaced by a Democratic president with a Democratic Senate would be catastrophic,” he added.

From the Huffington Post:

And now, Democrats may be about to lose the Senate, White House or both. But on the left, there is little open debate about whether she should retire.

The relative silence recalls the almost total lack of pressure on Ginsburg to retire exactly one decade ago. Ginsburg, seemingly betting she would outlive a Republican-held Senate and then Donald Trump’s presidency, died of pancreatic cancer at age 87, just weeks before Joe Biden won the 2020 election. When Trump nominated her replacement, Amy Coney Barrett, and she was confirmed on Oct. 26, he cemented the 6-3 conservative majority that then took less than two years to fully overturn Roe v. Wade, among other seismic jurisprudential shifts.

Fearing a repeat of history, a handful of people who were critical of Ginsburg’s judgment, are wearily reprising their warnings ― including Lucas Powe Jr., a Supreme Court historian at the University of Texas at Austin.

“I would love to see Sotomayor retire,” Powe said. “I would love to trade her for a 50-year-old justice.”

According to the New York Post, Senate Republicans would refuse to fill a Supreme Court vacancy during a second Biden term if they retake the majority.

The New York Post reports:

The move — a reprisal of the party’s stonewalling tactics after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016 — would allow the GOP to prevent Democrats from expanding their bloc on the high court for years and limit their own future losses.

The issue has returned to the fore once again as Democrats fret about the health of Justice Sonia Sotomayor during a contentious election year.

“I think Republicans would be prepared to stonewall any Biden Supreme Court nominee that was unacceptable to the Republican conference” a senior GOP aide close to Senate leadership told The Post.

The aide said a liberal justice, such as Ketanji Brown Jackson, would be a non-starter for a GOP-controlled Senate.

“Do you think [Democratic Sen. Chuck] Schumer would vote to confirm a Trump judge? No way. These people want to pack the Supreme Court,” the insider said of Dems.

The race for control of the Senate heavily favors Republicans. Of 33 seats up for grabs, Democrats and independents aligned with them will be defending 22, while Republicans will guard just 11. Republicans have an almost guaranteed victory in deep red West Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is retiring. Democratic senators in Ohio and Montana are also under threat as both states will likely back Trump by large margins.

 

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