On Wednesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was reported by NBC News that he will be retiring from the Court. The report notes:
Justice Stephen Breyer will step down from the Supreme Court at the end of the current term, according to people familiar with his thinking.
Breyer is one of the three remaining liberal justices, and his decision to retire after more than 27 years on the court allows President Joe Biden to appoint a successor who could serve for several decades and, in the short term, maintain the current 6-3 split between conservative and liberal justices.
At 83, Breyer is the court’s oldest member. Liberal activists have urged him for months to retire while Democrats hold both the White House and the Senate. They contended that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stayed too long despite her history of health problems and should have stepped down during the Obama administration.
Ginsburg’s death from cancer at 87 allowed former President Donald Trump to appoint her successor, Amy Coney Barrett, moving the court further to the right.
The elder justice’s retirement will give Joe Biden the opportunity to add another radical leftist to the Court, but it will require U.S. Senate approval in the evenly divided 50-50 chamber.