(Headline USA) Some less-radical Senate Democrats were reportedly “baffled” by their leftist colleagues’ efforts to push Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor into retirement.
A number of left-wing organizations have called on 69-year-old Sotomayor—the oldest liberal member of the Supreme Court and third oldest of all nine justices—to resign before November’s election to prevent the possibility of another appointment to the bench by former President Donald Trump.
Even if Trump is not elected, some fret that a Republican-led Senate would force the next Democrat president to compromise on a pick who could clear the threshold for confirmation.
A few Senate Democrats expressed support for the Left’s demands last week, urging Sotomayor to “learn” from the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was replaced by Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett after refusing similar calls to step aside during the Obama administration.
Others within the party, however, called the demands premature.
“She’s not 70. I might remind some of my colleagues to look around, check their birth certificate,” Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., a Judiciary Committee member, told The Hill. “She’s going full speed ahead. I’m not aware of significant issues, and I am aware of extraordinary competence.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., agreed, saying Sotomayor is “doing a great job, and I think she should stay. I’m a little baffled by [the chatter],” he added.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also dismissed as “nonsense” the Left’s arguments for Sotomayor’s resignation.
“Where did this come from?” Warren asked.
“I don’t want to add any fuel to the fire on this,” she added. “I think she’s doing a great job, and I am grateful for her public service.”
Questions about Sotomayor’s future on the bench escalated last week after Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., urged Sotomayor to consider what Ginsburg would have her do.
“It’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be,” he said. “The old saying—graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.”
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., agreed, saying he worried what another Trump appointment might do for the court’s “extremist wing.”
“Run it to 7-2 and you go from a captured court to a full MAGA court,” Whitehouse said. “Certainly I think if Justice Ginsburg had it to do over again, she might have rethought her confidence in her own health.”
