Solomon: There’s 1 Way Biden Can Avoid Fumbling SCOTUS Pick, But Will He Do It?
On Wednesday, it was announced that Justice Stephen Breyer had finally made the decision to retire from the Supreme Court at the end of the current term. This timing is for practical political reasons, a clear strategic…
On Wednesday, it was announced that Justice Stephen Breyer had finally made the decision to retire from the Supreme Court at the end of the current term.
This timing is for practical political reasons, a clear strategic move to allow President Joe Biden to replace Breyer with a judge of similar ideology before the midterm elections in November.
The reason it is important to replace Breyer well before November is the predicted red wave. The math here is simple. To confirm a new justice to the Supreme Court, you need 51 votes in the Senate. Right now the Senate is split 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast the deciding vote in a tie.
Some Democrats may be relatively confident going into the nomination process for the next justice, but they are failing to read the room. The room in question is the Senate, where to achieve that 50-50 split to set up the tie-breaking vote is anything but a given.
Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is currently polling at approximately 7 percent in her home state of Arizona. While she is not up for re-election until 2024, the chances of her being re-elected as a Democrat, particularly as more of the country paints itself red over the next two years, are not just slim but close to absolute zero. In fact, a poll