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The elephant in the room is the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I think everyone pretty much agrees that she hung on way too long, and her replacement ended up being Amy Coney Barrett, recipient of some of the nastiest attempts at mud-flinging since Brett Kavanaugh.
Sotormayor is 70 which in itself is not that old, but she is also a diabetic with allegedly poor health. The problem foreseen here is that she either dies or has to retire due to that poor health, which means - who gets to pick her successor?
The new presidential election is going to be held in June. If Biden wins re-election, great, she can drop off the perch the day after he's sworn in and they'll appoint a replacement like they did with Ketanji Brown Jackson (any opinions on how she's doing, as an aside? I was hearing prognostications of 'she'll be terrible/she'll be wonderful' but what's the view now?).
But if Trump wins, which is a possibility, then he's going to appoint another Catholic Theocrat Cultist (ahem) to tighten the grip on the Court of the Conservative Papist Menace.
So that's why the calls for her to not emulate Ruth and for the love of DEI, jump before she's pushed so Biden can get the reliable liberal justice the nation needs.
Pardon me while I smile. No, pardon me while I smirk like the Cheshire Cat. The amount of oleaginous gloating I saw on Tumblr when Sinema was elected and sworn in (by Pence) - she's bi! she's a Dem! she's liberal! Old Torture The Gays must hate her, look at his face in this photo!
And now the see-saw has gone to the other extreme, and she's a demon, a traitor who should be kicked out, all because she hasn't been the 200% rainbow flag waving on every cause that the children were hoping to get 😁
I understand why Manchin does what he does, and he's a canny politician. That Sinema is now Cruella deVille, seemingly, in the eyes of those who were all "yaas Mommy!" on her election just makes me laugh even harder.
Whenever the Motte discusses a court case, a few people always make sure to drop a note about how she's not very impressive and/or a partisan hack. So I assume she's doing more or less the same thing as every other justice.
For what it's worth, I felt the same way about Barrett, mostly on the weirdness of her concurrence in the Colorado judgment. Looking back on other opinions, though, she seems perfectly fine. Kavanaugh's been a pleasant surprise too. Turns out even getting consideration for the top job in the profession is a pretty good filter.
I was wondering, because of all the controversy around "She's only an AA pick", how she would turn out in the job when she got the chance to do it. So neither terribly bad nor terribly good? That's good enough!
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November 5th, actually. The last of the presidential primaries are in June.
Thanks, I did think November at first but wasn't sure. Should have gone with it! But even if there isn't a likelihood of Sotomayor having to retire due to ill-health in the next eight+ months, and even if Biden wins a second term, I think there is enough reason to be concerned that if her health is bad, she may have to retire soon anyway even into a second term, and planning for that is not a bad idea.
Mostly I think it's coming from people pissed-off about Kavanaugh, Bader Ginsburg, Barrett and the astounding decision on abortion, and they're over-compensating for "what if the evil wicked fascists win by a fluke this time again?"
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