WASHINGTON (AP), Stephen Breyer, after writing two of the Supreme Court's most important decisions this year could announce his retirement and say that he has come to a fitting close to 27 years of service as a justice.The 82-year old liberal justice could argue that his collaborative, pragmatic approach to judging is more important than ever and decides to stay.Breyer has not indicated that he will retire at the conclusion of Thursday's court term. The justices will decide on a case involving voting rights and one involving California's requirement that charities disclose the names of major donors.Sometimes, justices used the term's final day to announce their retirement. Justice Anthony Kennedy did this in 2018.Breyer could still resonate with one instance: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had announced that she would retire after her successor was confirmed.Breyer and O'Connor were close to each other on the court. They used similar approaches to their work but she was more conservative.Liberal activists who had been calling for his resignation are mostly content with the possibility that he will continue to serve on the Supreme Court bench.I'm imagining the worst but hoping for the best. This means that I hope he will still make an announcement. But, I don't expect one at the moment, stated Brian Fallon, executive director, progressive court group Demand Justice.Reason for liberal discontent is that Democrats hold a narrow majority of the Senate. A sudden death or prolonged absence by any older Democrats could make it difficult for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to stop a successor to Breyer being confirmed. Nominations, unlike most legislation require a simple Senate majority.Any threat to Democrats' control of the Senate could jeopardize President Joe Biden's promise to name the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.Continue the storyBreyer could also retire next year if nothing changes in Senate, as it is close to midterm elections.Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Breyer refused to resign during the last Democratic-controlled Congress and White House. This was when Barack Obama was president. Ginsburg then died two months prior to Biden's election.McConnell has not failed Democrats before. He stopped President Barack Obama from filling the Supreme Court vacancy in 2016 and kept Antonin Scalia’s seat open while awaiting the outcome to that year's presidential elections, won by Donald Trump eight months after Scalia died. Just over a month following Ginsburg's passing, McConnell approved the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett. This was less than a week before 2020.Both cases saw a Republican-controlled Senate able to nominate a Trump nominee for the court. These were the two Supreme Court appointments made by Trump that cemented a conservative majority of 6-3.Breyer's retirement would not alter this ideological balance. However, Supreme Court nominations are so rare that they often result in a fierce battle in politically divided times.Breyer, a Harvard professor who was an aide to Senator Edward Kennedy in 1970s, has been a leading Supreme Court voice cautioning against imagining the justices as politicians dressed in robes.Breyer spoke to a Harvard audience in April. He said it was wrong to view the Court as another political institution, and encouraged supporters of expanding the court's jurisdiction to consider what that would mean for the institution.Breyer spent most of his time in Cambridge, Massachusetts during the coronavirus pandemic. He made a steady stream via Zoom of public appearances.Some conservatives who supported Trump's nominees for the judicial senate said that Breyer's loud demands from progressive groups and law professors for his resignation would backfire.Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project (a conservative counterpart to Demand Justice), said that the political campaign to force Justice Breyer into retirement is the worst way to go.Breyer's experience in this year could be viewed as a validation of his approach, despite increased conservative strength on court.Breyer was in many majorities along with other liberal justices, in which they joined a group of conservatives. One of those was the June court decision to keep the Affordable Care Act. This rejection came despite a Republican-led challenge.Unanimously, the court also ruled that Philadelphia infringed religious rights of a church-based social agency by limiting its participation to a foster program due to its refusal to work with married gay couples.Breyer wrote the court’s opinion in support of a high school cheerleader who was suspended for being vulgar on social media after she posted a remark about not being selected for the varsity cheerleading team.Pratik Shah, a Washington attorney who was once the justice's law clerk, stated that Justice Breyers' ability to reach consensus in a practical way that is acceptable to other justices was demonstrated by the cheerleading and health care cases.Breyer's ability to seek broader agreements, which he gained while on Capitol Hill, could be useful in bridging the conservative-liberal divide next term. Already, the court has agreed to hear major cases involving abortion and guns. It could also take up another case on affirmative action for higher education. These hot-button topics may also be more difficult to compromise.Breyer may also be interested in the identity of his replacement. Biden just elevated Judge Ketanji Jackson from Washington's trial court to the federal court. She was also a Breyer law clerk at The Supreme Court.Jackson would be a judge on the appeals courts that have been a stepping stone to the Supreme Court if Breyer waited a year.Right now, she is not ready to be on the Supreme Court. Davis stated that she could be ready in a year.
