Shortly before Iowa’s presidential caucuses, Donald Trump boasted about the three far-right jurists he added to the U.S. Supreme Court during his term, but his rhetoric wasn’t entirely retrospective. In a second term, the former president promised, he’d add to his record with new appointees.
As it turns out, President Joe Biden has a similar focus. The Hill reported:
President Biden predicted during a speech Wednesday that the next president will be able to appoint two new Supreme Court justices, while warning against former President Trump winning another term. … The president campaigned at Girard College for the launch of Black Voters for Biden-Harris, an effort intended to mobilize support in the Black community.
In fact, the Democratic incumbent had quite a bit to say about the issue yesterday.
Biden on SCOTUS: "Guess what? The next president is gonna be able to appoint a couple justices." pic.twitter.com/wcJ20h7NG9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 29, 2024
Biden began by boasting about his one Supreme Court appointee — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — while noting, accurately, that he’s appointed more Black women to the appellate bench “than every other president in American history combined.”
The president went on to say, “And guess what? The next president [is] going to be able to appoint a couple of justices.” Biden concluded that he’s eager to nominate “progressive judges” who’d have a real impact.
Is that realistic? It’s impossible to say for certain, though it’s certainly not unrealistic.
Several years ago, a study in the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy found that the average retirement age for a U.S. Supreme Court justice is roughly 79. Since that study was conducted, several justices have left the court: David Souter retired in 2009 at the age of 70; John Paul Stevens retired in 2010 at the age of 90; Sandra Day O’Connor retired in 2006 when she was 76; Antonin Scalia died in 2016 when he was 79; Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020 when she was 87; and Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018 at the age of 82.
Taken together, the average retirement age hasn’t changed much. With this in mind, it’s worth noting that Justice Clarence Thomas will soon turn 76, and he’ll reach 80 during the next presidential term. Justice Samuel Alito recently turned 74, and he’ll nearly reach the average retirement age before Election Day 2028. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, meanwhile, will turn 70 next month, though she’s had health issues that have prompted spirited discussions about whether she should retire this year. Is the future of the U.S. Supreme Court on the ballot? It might not be as painfully obvious as it was in the 2016 race, but it’s not a stretch, either.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
