Several activists and professors at the nation’s top universities have issued a joint letter calling on Justice Stephen Breyer to resign from the Supreme Court in order for President Joe Biden to name his replacement.
Demand Justice, a progressive group of former Obama administration officials, published a letter Tuesday calling on Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to resign his seat so that Biden can nominate his successor. The letter is signed by several legal scholars, including Samuel Moyn of Yale Law School, Harvard Law School professor Nikolas Bowie and Erwin Chemerinsky of U.C.-Berkley School of Law, among others. Other signatories include Black Lives Matter, Common Defense, Take Back The Court Action Fund, We Testify and Women’s March.
Leading scholars of the law are speaking up about the need for Justice Breyer to retire. pic.twitter.com/jgolfTqTla
— Demand Justice #ExpandTheCourt (@WeDemandJustice) June 16, 2021
”Justice Stephen Breyer should immediately announce his intent to retire from the bench. With future control of the closely divided Senate uncertain, President Biden must have the opportunity to nominate a successor without delay and fulfill his pledge to put the first Black woman on the Supreme Court,” the letter stated.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday he would block Biden’s Supreme Court nominee if Republicans were to take control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections. McConnell notably blocked former President Barack Obama’s nominee Merrick Garland in 2016 and pushed through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett days before the 2020 election. (RELATED: McConnell Says He Would Not Allow Biden To Fill A Supreme Court Vacancy If He Becomes Majority Leader Again)
“If Breyer were replaced by an additional ultra-conservative justice, an even further-right Supreme Court would leave our democracy and the rights of marginalized communities at even greater risk,” the letter continued.
Justice Breyer was nominated by former President Bill Clinton and has served on the Supreme Court since 1994. The oldest incumbent Justice, he is generally considered to be ideologically liberal but has recently spoken out against the court-packing proposed by some progressives.