CNN
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Being a Supreme Court justice is not easy.
As the presidential election approaches, speculation is mounting over new appointments to the country’s Supreme Court. However, an impending vacancy is not guaranteed.
It is difficult to relinquish the power to decide the country’s laws.
Georgetown Law professor Brad Snyder, author of a biography of Felix Frankfurter and a scholar of the 20th century courtroom, said of the pressure to retire, “Great people encourage it.” “They say, ‘No one can do this job better than me.'”
Historical patterns persist. Of the last 10 vacancies dating back to 1990, more than half were due to death or illness. Two of the last four justices to leave the court, Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, died in the line of duty, and most of the last 12 justices were at least 80 years old.
“I’m getting older and falling apart,” Justice Thurgood Marshall told reporters when he announced his retirement in June 1991. He was almost 83 years old.
The liberal civil rights pioneer and first black judge has had personal health ups and downs while Republican George H.W. Bush was in office and able to name his successor. Despite this, his reluctance to resign was overcome. President Bush chose Clarence Thomas, an ardent conservative whose approach to the Constitution and civil rights remedies was diametrically opposed to Marshall’s.
Thomas, 76, is the oldest of the current nine justices, followed by Samuel Alito (74) and Sonia Sotomayor (70). Chief Justice John Roberts turns 70 in January.
All three are past average retirement age but still in their prime years on the Supreme Court, where seniority is valued.
Mr. Thomas and Mr. Alito are part of a powerful right-wing group pushing for an overhaul of U.S. laws, including a reversal of abortion rights. The bloc also repealed desegregation measures in college admissions and reduced the power of federal regulators to set workplace, consumer, and environmental policies. It also changed the court’s direction on several culture war issues involving religion.
In short, Mr. Thomas and Mr. Alito occupy a formidable position in a coalition that is reshaping the legal framework.
Liberal Sotomayor is certainly among the losers, but her seniority gives her the power to provide dissent and lead the left.
Despite dissatisfaction from internal dissent and growing public criticism, judges are reluctant to abandon their roles.
“They’re trying to stay in power, they’re trying to stay relevant in society,” Snyder said. “They’re also trying to survive. They’re people who live to work. If you take away their jobs, they can no longer live to work.”
However, the new president is eagerly hoping to fill the ranks so that he can make his mark through life-term appointments. In June, President Joe Biden (Ketanji Brown Jackson), who nominated the first black woman to the court in 2022, said, “The next president may nominate two new Supreme Court nominees.” expected to be high.
But such stories end there. talk.
Despite election season predictions to the contrary, President George W. Even after making subtle advances, there were no vacancies for a second term. Jimmy Carter served only one term and was never appointed to the Supreme Court.
But during his single term, Trump filled two vacancies created by the deaths of iconic conservative and liberal figures. Mr. Scalia died suddenly on a hunting ranch in Texas in 2016, and Ms. Ginsburg died of pancreatic cancer in 2020.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist similarly died in office after battling thyroid cancer for nearly a year and resisting retirement. After his death in September 2005, he was succeeded by the like-minded Roberts.
Ginsburg’s postponement of retirement had more serious consequences. When she died at age 87, Trump replaced her with Amy Coney Barrett, 40 years his junior, securing a conservative supermajority.
Ginsburg’s situation then accelerated liberal pressure on fellow octogenarian Stephen Breyer to retire while Democrat Biden occupied the White House.
Breyer, then 83, was still enjoying his job when he announced he would retire in 2022. He understood the realities of life in your 80s. As his predecessor, Justice Harry Blackmun, said upon retiring in 1994 at the age of 85: “It’s not easy to step down, but I know what the numbers are. It’s time.” It’s here.”
Breyer told CNN in an interview shortly before retiring that his main consideration was his health. Since then, Breyer has explained his concern for the longevity of judges by emphasizing that courts are long-term games, that cases pile on top of each other, and that judges grow more confident with each passing year. I am doing it.
“When you’re there, you see how quickly the applause dies down,” he said. “A few years later, I was at a meeting and a young student came up to me and said, ‘Judge, I love your opinion.’ ‘Will you do that?’ I said, sure. Then he turned to his friend and held up four fingers and said, ‘That’ll be four!’
Justices have long made it clear that they favor like-minded successors and even former law clerks, but this has been the pattern in recent years. (For example, Justice Breyer was replaced by former clerk Jackson, but four years earlier, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy was replaced by Brett Kavanaugh, who had previously clerked for him.) did.)
Therefore, the politics of who will hold the White House will be important.
The state of the bench today means that if Republican Trump wins, Alito and Thomas will be more likely to consider resigning. If Democrat Kamala Harris wins, she will become the outside mayor. Friends of the three said the justices sometimes mused about election predictions or personal retirement, but proposed policies that reflected casual ideas rather than concrete plans.
The more obvious determinant is personal health.
Current judges have resisted sharing health information or explaining their sudden absences from oral arguments or other public events.
Although the current nine appear to be in good health, it is difficult for outsiders to really know their personal situations. In 2022, Thomas was hospitalized for a week with what court officials described as an infection. In 2020, Roberts fell at a country club in Maryland and was hospitalized with head injuries. Court officials said the fall was only discovered after the Washington Post reported it and was unrelated to Roberts’ previous epileptic seizures, the first of which reportedly occurred in 1993. said.
Sotomayor, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 8, sometimes speaks about managing the condition, especially to audiences of children. In 2018, paramedics were called to her home for what court officials described as “symptoms of hypoglycemia.”
Judge John Paul Stevens, appointed in 1975 and the subject of retirement rumors for years, held out until 2010. After stumbling over the words of the dissent (in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission), he realized in January of that year, as he was reading on the bench, that his time had come.
Stevens later revealed in his memoirs that he learned he had “suffered a mild stroke.” The justices then told Obama he would resign at the end of the annual session in June.
Stevens was 90 years old when he retired. Twenty years ago, in 1990, Justice William Brennan suffered a mild stroke while on vacation, leading to a more abrupt retirement announcement. He was 84 years old when he notified President George H.W. Bush of his immediate retirement.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was just 75 years old when she announced her plans to retire from the court in July 2005. But she said her husband has Alzheimer’s disease and she wanted to spend more time with him.
Justice David Souter is a modern-day exception.
He retired in 2009 at the relatively youthful age of 69. This learned New Hampshire bachelor simply could not adapt to Washington’s ways.
His short resignation letter gave no reason for his resignation. Over the next decade, Souter occasionally listened to U.S. appellate proceedings. He declined to answer CNN’s recent questions about his thoughts on why most judges stay in office so long.
Perhaps clarifying Mr. Souter’s thinking, a few weeks after reporting to Mr. Obama, Mr. Souter told an audience at a legal conference: We must feel a sense of satisfaction in being part of that larger flow. ”
