Democrats taking control of the Senate have raised talk of the possibility that 82 year old Justice, Stephen Breyer might retire to infuse youth and diversity to the Supreme Court during the Biden administration.
Breyer is one of the liberal justices on the 9-person court, which has a firm Republican majority 6-3, but his retirement early during Joe Biden's presidency would give the opportunity to turn his seat over, according to CNN.
"I'm looking forward to making sure there's a Black woman on the Supreme Court, to make sure we in fact get every representation," Biden said during a Democrat primary debate in February.
Breyer declined to talk retirement to CNN.
Biden has nominated Judge Merrick Garland to lead his Justice Department as attorney general, but he could be considered, too, after Republicans blocked his nomination in the GOP-held Senate in 2016.
Garland, however, would not fit the Biden goal of diversifying the court.
Among the Black women to be considered will be U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 50, in Washington, D.C. – a former Justice Breyer clerk – and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, 44, per the report.
The latter would be positioned as the youngest on the lifetime court, after President Donald Trump added the three youngest justices to the court in his one-term presidency: Justices Neil Gorsuch, 53, Brett Kavanaugh, 55, and Amy Coney Barrett, 48.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.