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Some Democratic senators are warning Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to carefully “weigh the competing factors” as she faces calls from progressives to retire from the Court, and argued Democrats should learn a lesson from 2020.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told NBC News that Democrats should “learn a lesson,” after former Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away while on the bench in 2020, and former President Trump nominated Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace her.
“I’m very respectful of Justice Sotomayor. I have great admiration for her. But I think she really has to weigh the competing factors,” he said. “We should learn a lesson. And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be. The old saying — graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.”
Blumenthal praised Sotomayor and didn’t appear to directly suggest she step down, but said she should consider public interest.
Democratic Sen. Blumenthal suggested Justice Sotomayor weigh the “competing factors” in her decision to retire. (Left: (Photo by Mykola Tys/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images) Right: (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin-Pool/Getty Images))
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He told NBC, “justices have to make their personal decisions about their health, and their level of energy, but also to keep in mind the larger national and public interest in making sure that the court looks and thinks like America.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said that Ginsburg might have rethought her decision to remain on the court and expressed concerns over a bigger conservative majority.
“Run it to 7-2 and you go from a captured court to a full MAGA court,” Whitehouse told NBC. “Certainly I think if Justice Ginsburg had it to do over again, she might have rethought her confidence in her own health.”
Liberal journalists, such as former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, along with some law professors, have called on Sotomayor to retire, so that President Biden can appoint another liberal justice to the court.
Mehdi Hasan is calling for Justice Sotomayor to step down from the Supreme Court so liberals can nominate a younger judge under a Democratic president. (Left: (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images), Right: (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images))
Hasan cited polling that showed Trump was ahead in some key swing states.
“I have PTSD from 2020, I think the Democrats didn‘t learn lessons. Look, what are we talking about, abortion rights. How did that happen? Dobbs [v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization], how did the Florida decision happen today? [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis appointed five of the seven judges. Republicans are very good at stacking courts and getting their people on courts and thinking strategically about filling courts. Democrats aren’t very good at seeing the power of the Supreme Court,” Hasan said Tuesday.
“And that’s why I worry. I worry that, why would you want to repeat history? Why take the risk? You have a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate, and you have a justice who is about to turn 70,” he said.
Justices of the US Supreme Court pose for their official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on October 7, 2022. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden White House described it as a “personal decision” for Sotomayor.
“When it comes to those types of decisions, those are personal decisions, regardless of if it’s Justice Sotomayor or any other justice on the bench,” she said. “That is for them to make, that is a decision for that justice to make. Again, it’s a personal decision. That is not something that we get involved in, but it is something for, obviously, any justice on the bench. They should be given the space and freedom to make that decision.”
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.
