US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire, reports say, giving Biden first appointment of presidency
Justice Breyer was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994 and is one of three remaining liberal justices at the court. His retirement would give Joe Biden his first appointment in his presidency.
Wednesday 26 January 2022 21:15, UK
Liberal US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is to retire, NBC News has reported.
Press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House did not confirm Mr Breyer's retirement, telling reporters any announcement would be up to him.
Mr Breyer's retirement would give Joe Biden his first Supreme Court appointment of his presidency.
President Bill Clinton appointed Mr Breyer in 1994 after Harry Blackmun stepped down from the role.
Mr Bryer is one of the three remaining liberal judges and at 83, he is the court's oldest member.
The justice has been a pragmatic member of an increasingly conservative court, trying to force majorities with more moderate justices right and left of centre.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump appointed conservative justice Amy Barrett after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died from cancer.
Mr Breyer's departure is expected to happen over the summer but it won't change the conservative-liberal make-up, with Mr Biden likely to nominate another liberal.
Read more: Donald Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch for US Supreme Court
The appointment will almost certainly be confirmed by the Senate, where Democrats have a slight majority.
Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative, will be the oldest member of the court at the age of 73, once Mr Breyer steps down.
Who could President Biden nominate?
Experts have already started drawing up potential nominees: California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger; US Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson; prominent civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill; and US District Judge Michelle Childs, whom Mr Biden has nominated to be an appeals court judge.
Analysis
Bombshell, monumental, earth-shattering are some of the words being used in the US media to describe Stephen Breyer’s decision to retire from the Supreme Court after 27 years.
At 83 years old and under sustained pressure from some quarters to step down, his departure is not an enormous shock but the timing has caught many by surprise and the implications are huge.
Whoever replaces Mr Breyer the ideological balance of the court will remain unchanged, still weighed 6-3, in favour of conservative justices, a shift solidified during Donald Trump’s presidency.
But his retirement gives President Joe Biden the opportunity to nominate a replacement, which would be one of the biggest decisions of his presidency, even more so because it enables him to make good on a campaign promise and nominate the first black woman to the highest court in the land.
Then presidential-nominee, Mr Biden said that if he was elected he would make history by nominating a black woman to the Supreme Court because – in his words from February 2020 - “it should look like the country. It’s long past time.”
The front runner in many minds is Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Harvard Law School graduate, who is already serving on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the second-most important court in the country after the Supreme Court.
At 51 years old, Ms Jackson could serve on the Supreme Court and help shape US law for decades to come.
Read more: Democrats seek to increase justices from nine to 13
Ms Childs is a favourite of Republican James Clyburn, who made a crucial endorsement of Mr Biden just before South Carolina's presidential primary in 2020.
Who is Stephen Breyer?
Mr Breyer was often overshadowed by his fellow liberal Ms Ginsburg, but during his time on the Supreme Court, he has penned two opinions pieces in support of abortion rights on a court closely divided over the issue, and he laid out his growing discomfort with the death penalty in a series of dissenting opinions in recent years.
However, Mr Breyer also shared views on displaying the Ten Commandments on government property, illustrating his search for a middle ground.
Mr Breyer served for 14 years on the First US Circuit Court of Appeals before moving up to the Supreme Court.
Born in San Francisco, he began a stellar academic career at Stanford, graduating with the highest honours.
He attended Oxford, where he received first-class honours in philosophy, politics and economics.
Mr Breyer then attended Harvard's law school, where he worked on the Law Review and again, graduated with the highest honours.
His first job after law school was as a law clerk to Goldberg and he then worked in the Justice Department's antitrust division before splitting time as a Harvard law professor and a lawyer for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr Breyer and his wife, Joanna, a psychologist and daughter of the late British Conservative politician John Blakenham, have three children - daughters Chloe and Nell and a son, Michael - and six grandchildren.