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**JANUARY 26, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
Breyer Finally Steps Aside
Biden is very likely to name Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his
successor.
Winston Churchill famously remarked that you can always count on
Americans to do the right thing after they've tried everything else.
So it is with retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, who at
last announced today that he is stepping down.
Before coming to this decision, Breyer even wrote a tortured book last
fall,
**The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics**, contending
that timing a resignation would politicize a Court-that is already
politicized beyond recognition. It convinced no one.
Breyer's announcement comes after a long parade of people begging him
to swallow his pride and step down. There will now just be time for the
Senate to confirm a successor before the November midterm elections,
which could put the Democratic Senate majority in jeopardy.
Biden pledged
in so many words at a public debate in Charleston, South Carolina, to
appoint an African American woman to the high court. It was Rep. Jim
Clyburn of Charleston whose endorsement literally led to Biden's
nomination.
That nominee will almost certainly be Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51,
who has served as Breyer's law clerk, a tie that may well have foamed
the runway for Breyer's retirement. Jackson was appointed last year to
the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which often serves as an antechamber
for Supreme Court nominees. So she has the professional as well as the
political chops for the job.
This succession will not alter the fundamental 6-3 ideological divide of
the Court. Had Breyer emulated Ruth Bader Ginsburg and stayed on longer,
though, it could have been catastrophic.
Replacing Breyer with Jackson may nudge the needle a shade to the left,
since Breyer was an architect of the deregulation of the late 1970s when
he was counsel to Ted Kennedy, and has been the most conservative of the
Court's liberals on economic rulings. When Bill Clinton named Breyer
to the Court in May 1994, he was confirmed 87-9, with the support of
most Republicans.
****
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
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**Robert Kuttner's latest book is**
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.
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