Sotomayor has no plans to resign from Supreme Court, sources say
Some Democrats hoped the justice would resign so Biden could pick a successor.
Despite urgent speculation in liberal legal circles and some talk among Democratic senators of potentially outright urging Justice Sonia Sotomayor to resign, sources close to the senior liberal justice have told ABC News that she is not expected to step down in the middle of the term because of the 2024 election results.
Sotomayor, 70, is in good health and a vigorous participant in the court’s work. She is well below the average retirement age of 75, and her diabetes, which she has had since childhood, remains well-managed.
Justices are appointed for life and have generally chafed at public pressure campaigns to step aside. Among other considerations, bowing to public pressure could further politicize the court’s image and would likely be a major concern, several court analysts have said.
Sotomayor, the first Latina on the high court bench, has embraced her role as the chief counterweight to the conservative majority and made clear she has plenty of fight left to give.
Speaking at Harvard in May, Sotomayor, who was nominated to the court by then-President Barack Obama, said that while “every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart,” she chooses to “keep on fighting.”
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“There are moments when I’m deeply, deeply sad,” she said at Harvard. “And there are moments when, yes, even I feel desperation. We all do. But you have to own it. You have to accept it. You have to shed the tears, and then you have to wipe them and get up and fight some more.”
Still, many Democrats are reeling from the late 2020 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg from liver cancer at 87, handing a choice opportunity to then-President Donald Trump to nominate his third justice to the high court. Ginsburg had been in poor health for years and passed up the chance to retire earlier and have Obama nominate her replacement.
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Forcing out Sotomayor, assuming she would agree to go, could be politically risky, and a successful confirmation before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, logistically impossible. Those realities have seemed to be sinking in among some key Democratic players.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders said that he doesn’t “think it’s a sensible approach” when asked about whether he thought Sotomayor should be pressured by Democrats to step aside.
