As more liberals urge Sonia Sotomayor to step down this year to ensure that Biden can pick her successor, some Senate Democrats are voicing fears of a 7-2 conservative majority.
If we had a different process for appointing justices, her age/health wouldn’t matter as much. The problem is that if she dies during a conservative presidency, our already skewed supreme court becomes a radical supreme court, because a Republican will appoint a very conservative justice.
The United States leans left (~54% I believe), but even if the nation is a 50/50 split, a supreme court that is 6/9 far right already wildly misrepresents the people. 7+ leaves most of this country without a voice.
Disregarding if it would be a good idea to retire for other reasons; If she needs another person to assist her to do her job, I’d say she can’t do her job.
How many other jobs would allow a worker with a personal medic on standby?
I think this is a huge problem in American politics, and Americans really need to get around to elect younger officials asap. Obviously it’s not that easy, and the problems run deep.
The supreme court, however, it’s the one institution that’s kind of intentionally old. They are supposed to be experienced ageing justices at the end of their career.
The problem is not that the supreme court is old as much as that politicians are even older.
She’s only 69 though. Four justices are younger than her, three are older. She’s closer in age to Kamala Harris than she is to Joe Biden.
I get the concern, but at some point it gets silly.
She’s also diabetic, a former chain-smoker, and has to travel with a medic.
Ok, and does that mean she’s not capable of fulfilling her duties?
If you consider “being alive until 2029” one of her duties, she has a good chance of not fulfilling it.
And potentially needing to stick around until 2033 even…
Not at the moment but it does mean she might suddenly die during the next presidential term.
If we had a different process for appointing justices, her age/health wouldn’t matter as much. The problem is that if she dies during a conservative presidency, our already skewed supreme court becomes a radical supreme court, because a Republican will appoint a very conservative justice.
The United States leans left (~54% I believe), but even if the nation is a 50/50 split, a supreme court that is 6/9 far right already wildly misrepresents the people. 7+ leaves most of this country without a voice.
Disregarding if it would be a good idea to retire for other reasons; If she needs another person to assist her to do her job, I’d say she can’t do her job.
How many other jobs would allow a worker with a personal medic on standby?
… Think about your first sentence for a second.
I understand the point of it is to demonstrate how likely it is for her to continue living another 5-10 years, but stop for a second and consider…
She’s ONLY 69 years old.
Nearly 7 decades.
And the median American is currently just under 39 years old according to my 20 second googling.
Thats fucking insane to me.
And she’s not even the oldest, nowhere near the oldest in government. The median age of senators is apparently around 65.
I already don’t understand kids these days half the time, there’s exactly 0 chance of these people understanding me…
I think this is a huge problem in American politics, and Americans really need to get around to elect younger officials asap. Obviously it’s not that easy, and the problems run deep.
The supreme court, however, it’s the one institution that’s kind of intentionally old. They are supposed to be experienced ageing justices at the end of their career.
The problem is not that the supreme court is old as much as that politicians are even older.
Retirement age should be mandated. 65 spend time on whatever, not work.