Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor faces fresh calls to retire after Trump’s win as liberals panic

A growing number of Democratic intellectuals are calling on Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

The 70-year-old judge, first appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009, is facing concerns from the left about her longevity.

They want her to resign so President Joe Biden can replace her with a much younger liberal judge during his final weeks in office before Trump takes over on January 20.

“Sotomayor should retire tomorrow and let the Senate confirm her replacement,” wrote Miranda Yaver, a political scientist and assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh.

The idea was first proposed in the spring, when left-wing intellectuals warned that it would be the nation’s first Latina justice to resign in favor of the court’s ideological makeup.

‘Why take the risk? You have a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate, and you have a judge who is about to turn 70,” former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan said on CNN at the time, after to write a column for the Guardian calling on her to resign.

But Trump’s election victory has once again raised the alarm.

Hasan reshared his article on social media on Wednesday. “I happen to think that this piece of mine has (unfortunately!) gotten quite old,” he wrote.

Others agreed, saying this could be Democrats’ “last chance to fill her seat for now.”

Republicans are ready for a clean power grab in Washington with Trump in the White House, a new Republican majority in the Senate and control of the House most likely to remain with the Republican Party.

Liberal journalist Josh Barro of the “Very Serious” newsletter told the Washington Post, “It has historically been possible to go twelve or fourteen years without simultaneous control of the White House and the Senate, after we initially lost that control.” lost. The next time she gets a good chance to retire, she could be well into her eighties.’

CNN analyst Bakari Sellers even proposed the idea of ​​repackaging Sotomayor with Vice President Kamala Harris after he lost to Donald Trump.

“You have a great vice president there who has the legal background to serve on a Supreme Court,” he said on CNN Friday morning. “And let the Republicans go crazy, monkey, I even mention that option.”

US President Donald Trump greets Stephen Breyer and Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor after addressing a joint session of the US Congress

Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as her husband Doug Emhoff holds the Bible.

Other justices, including Clarence Thomas, 76, and Sam Alito, 74, could also retire during Trump’s second term, allowing him to leave an even more permanent mark on the Supreme Court’s makeup.

Sotomayor has not publicly responded to the calls for retirement.

Her unlikely decision to resign would have to happen quickly, with just five weeks in Congress before the Christmas holidays.

But the left’s worst nightmare would be a repeat of what happened to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who stubbornly refused to retire and died at age 87 while Trump was still president.

It opened the door for Trump to confirm conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the court.

In the unlikely event that she decides to resign, it would have to happen quickly, with just five weeks in Congress before the Christmas holidays.

If Sotomayor dies during Trump’s second term, it would allow him an unprecedented fourth Supreme Court appointment in his second term.

Other justices, including Clarence Thomas, 76, and Sam Alito, 74, could also retire during Trump’s second term, allowing him to leave an even more permanent mark on the Supreme Court’s makeup.