Monday, April 1, 2024

All good arguments, but...

Mehdi Hasan thinks Justice Sotomayor should retire.
It is Sonia Sotomayor who is the greatest liberal to sit on the supreme court in my adult lifetime. The first Latina to hold the position of justice, she has blazed a relentlessly progressive trail on the highest bench in the land.

[...]

To recall how RBG, who had survived two bouts of cancer, refused to quit the court despite calls to do so from leading liberals during Barack Obama’s second term office. To hark back to her insistence, in multiple interviews, that it was “misguided” to insist she retire and that she would only stand down “when it’s time”.

[...]

With Joe Biden trailing Trump in several swing states and Democrats also in danger of losing their razor-thin majority in the Senate, are we really prepared for history to repeat itself? Sotomayor will turn 70 in June. Of course, only Sotomayor knows the full status of her health, still it is public knowledge that she has had type 1 diabetes since she was seven; had paramedics called to her home; and is the only sitting justice to have, reportedly, traveled with a medic. To be clear: she could easily – and God willing – survive a potential Trump second term and still be dishing out dissents from the bench come 2029.

But why take that risk? Why not retire now? Why not quit the bench at the same age that justices in Belgium, Australia and Japan are forced to do so?

  Guardian
You can read the article for Mehdi's arguments and answers to objections to his suggestion Sotomayor retire.

I might agree with Mehdi (who is light years smarter than I), but for one thing: I think we've lost any hope for the Supreme Court to rule in a liberal manner if Trump becomes president again.  Where they now sometimes bend a little, they'll feel no need to then.

So I say, keep her on and let her make more righteous dissents for far future (hopefully) more liberal judges to use in their rulings.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No comments: