Calls for Justice Sotomayor to Retire Are Growing. Here's What John Fetterman Thinks.

There's been chatter when it comes to Democrats calling for Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire, so that President Joe Biden can nominate another liberal justice. Of course, the left has done it before, forcing now former Justice Stephen Breyer to retire so that Biden could nominate now Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. The retirement was even leaked beforehand. Not everyone is calling for Sotomayor to rush into retirement, though, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) offering a suggestion for someone else who should retire.

According to HuffPost's Igor Bobic, Fetterman said that "I have no opinion on anyone else’s ability to retire unless it’s that sleazeball Menendez, he should resign."

that sweet sweet parking space https://t.co/tNkRilT9Kh

— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) April 9, 2024

He was, of course, speaking about Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), and Fetterman has been trolling for months now. Fetterman himself responded with a quoted repost about that "that sweet sweet parking space."

Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, have been indicted with multiple counts of corruption, with 16 criminal counts coming last month. Attorneys for the senator's wife on Tuesday asked for a delayed trial, citing a "serious medical condition" and how she'll need a "surgical procedure" and follow-up treatment.

Not only does Menendez refuse to resign, but he has also teased running for reelection in November as an Independent. An Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill poll from last week showed him with just a 14 percent approval rating among New Jersey voters. Further, if he were to run, he has just 9 percent support in that poll. 

Bobic's reporting covered how Fetterman isn't alone in dismissing calls that Sotomayor should retire. 

This ongoing and comical feud between Fetterman and Menendez isn't the only example of Democratic infighting going on, though. One of their own, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), made a suggestion that sounded quite like he thinks Sotomayor should maybe retire, resulting in strong and swift opposition from his fellow Democrats and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. 

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As the HuffPost article mentioned:

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, caused a stir last week when he suggested to NBC News that Sotomayor should consider the timing of any career decision and that Democrats “should learn a lesson” about the high stakes involving Supreme Court appointments.

...

Asked about the reaction to his comments, Blumenthal told HuffPost that he never called for Sotomayor to retire.

“Justice Sotomayor should make her own decisions,” he said. “It should be completely up to her what she does. I’m not saying she should resign.”

Regardless as to what Blumenthal really meant, Democrats have reason to worry about the Supreme Court, especially if Republicans take back control of the Senate. The 2024 map looks particularly favorable for them to do so, especially in comparison to 2022, when it comes to seats they're defending as well as looking to pick up. 

Joe Cunningham at our sister site of RedState put out a piece on Tuesday morning on how "Democrats Have Been Panicking About Joe Biden. Now, They're Panicking About the Senate."

FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver referenced Blumenthal, as well as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), another member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In calling for Sotomayor to retire, he also pointed out that commentator Josh Barro has as well in a Substack piece titled "Keep the Pressure on Sotomayor to Retire."

Yes, Sotomayor should retire. Not a remotely close call if you want to avoid a 7-2 conservative majority. I work through some of the math here.https://t.co/SVRdt8MSVY

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) April 8, 2024

As Silver wrote, claiming he was being "more blunt" than the above figures:

However, I’m going to be more blunt than any of them. If you’re someone who even vaguely cares about progressive political outcomes — someone who would rather not see a 7-2 conservative majority on the Supreme Court even if you don’t agree with liberals on every issue— you should want Sotomayor to retire and be replaced by a younger liberal justice. And — here’s the mean part — if you don’t want that, you deserve what you get.

With original emphasis, he argued that the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg should have faced more pressure to resign, in order to be replaced with another liberal justice of former President Barack Obama's choosing:

The nature of lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court — something I’d reform if for some strange reason I was tasked with rewriting the Constitution — is that we as citizens have not just the right but I’d argue the responsibility to think strategically about the justices’ age and health. Perhaps — perhaps — if the political class hadn’t seen such discussions as uncouth, Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have come under more peer pressure to retire when Barack Obama could have replaced her. Instead, of course, RBG died in the waning days of the 2020 presidential campaign, replaced on the bench by Donald Trump’s choice of Amy Coney Barrett.

To be fair, Sotomayor might eventually be replaced by another liberal justice even if she doesn’t step down now. But this year’s Senate map is very bad for Democrats — they’re almost certain to lose West Virginia, where Joe Manchin is retiring, and they’re under threat of losing Montana, Ohio, Arizona and Nevada, along with other states; meanwhile, their only real pickup opportunities are in Texas and maybe Florida, and both are stretches. Overall, prediction markets give Democrats only a 25 percent chance of keeping control of the Senate. Even if Joe Biden keeps the presidency, A GOP-run Senate allowing Democrats to appoint another liberal justice isn’t a proposition I’d want to bet on after they mothballed Merrick Garland.

And Democrats have to retain the presidency too, which is something of a 50/50 proposition according to these markets. (I’m overdue for an update on my own thoughts about the state of the presidential race, but the prediction markets — which have rebounded toward Biden in recent weeks — have come more into line with my views.) Now, these probabilities aren’t independent of one another: Democrats are much more likely to retain the Senate conditional upon Biden winning another term than they otherwise would be, in part because they’d still have VP Kamala Harris to break a 50-50 tie. Still, maybe the chances are something like 20 percent that Democrats control both the Senate and the presidency in January 2025. The odds are against them.

In this situation, let the Democrats in disarray fight each other. As everyone acknowledges, Donald Trump has a good chance of getting back in the White House, and Republicans have an even better chance of winning the Senate.

It's also worth reminding how Trump's 2016 win was in part due to how the Supreme Court was a huge motivating factor for his voters, whereas it really was not at all to those who voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump went on to name nominate three U.S. Supreme Court justices, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who replaced Ginsburg.

We'll see if the issue motivates either party this time again for 2024.