Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed and sworn in as a Supreme Court Justice in August 2009. That means this August will be her 15th year on the court. But there’s another landmark coming up before that, one that Josh Barro says ought to make Sotomayor and Democrats think carefully about retirement. In June Sotomayor will turn 70.
Why does that matter? As Barro points out, that’s exactly how old Antonin Scalia was in 2006. Had he resigned that year with 20 years on the court, a GOP president and a GOP controlled Senate could have replaced him with a younger conservative. Instead, Scalia stuck around and, as we all know, in Feb. 2016 he died. Barack Obama was president at the time but fortunately the GOP controlled the Senate so no moderate or liberal replacement for Scalia was confirmed. Trump won the next election and Neil Gorsuch eventually took the seat held open for him by Mitch…
