Sonia Sotomayor is 69 years old. Ruth Bader Ginsburg remained on the Supreme Court until her death at 87. Jonathan Turley writes:There are new calls for Justice Sotomayor to retire. https://t.co/2T7AzsruwX Advocates are demanding a younger liberal justice who will ensure a reliable vote for years to come. Some have suggested more coercive measures to push justices to retire. https://t.co/Afst1Uitf3
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) March 18, 2024
At 69, Sotomayor shows no signs of mental decline. She has been a highly effective justice, stepping into the vacuum created by the death in 2020 of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Of course, few ever questioned the “Notorious RBG” in her decision to stay on the Court, despite her much older age and longer tenure. While some of us noted that Ginsburg was taking a huge risk in not allowing then-President Barack Obama to pick a successor, she remained on the Court in spite of medical problems and ultimately was replaced by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Ginsburg, however, was almost 20 years older than Sotomayor. There is no concern for deterioration or death on the bench in Sotomayor’s case. It is simply a matter of swapping out justices like light bulbs before they burn out. The grumbling from the left reflects the raw political calculations that are now commonly applied to the Supreme Court. Justices are treated as cutouts for partisan outcomes; the worth of a justice is now largely seen as her potential longevity rather than her jurisprudence. Sotomayor‘s seat is viewed as a lock for liberals, who want to trade for a new model before the new year (and a possible Republican president). None of this is surprising in a time when law school deans have called conservative justices “hacks” and law professors have called for protesters to aggressively target individual justices.Democrats/Marxists/Leftists are destroying our country.
