Before Donald Trump’s inauguration, Joe Biden should compel Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to step down in order to install Kamala Harris, a far-left political commentator suggested to CNN.
Discussing the insidious notion with CNN News Central‘s John Berman on Friday, commentator Bakari Sellars described how Biden could avoid a Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg situation and best solidify liberals’ 6-3 court split by replacing Sotomayor, 70, who’s suffering health issues, with the younger 60-year-old Harris.
“Justice Sotomayor has been a more than able justice. I know she may be having some personal issues that she contends with while serving on the bench. But, you know, I don’t want Justice Sotomayor to be another Ruth Bader Ginsburg in terms of staying too long,” Sellars claimed.
“What does this mean for the dynamic of the court? The court is 6-3 now. If we are able to replace it with a Biden justice, it will still be 6-3,” he noted, going on to say Sotomayor stepping down within the next four years would jeopardize that split as it would allow Trump to select another conservative justice, similar to how he filled RBG’s seat with Amy Coney Barrett.
“The possibility of Justice Sotomayor having to resign or retire in the next four years is extremely high. You couple that with Alito and Clarence Thomas, then that means you go from a 6-3 court to 7-2 court in terms of conservative versus liberal.”
Getting to the gist of his argument, Sellars suggested 2024 presidential loser Kamala could make a decent SCOTUS justice.
“I hope Joe Biden makes the next 10 weeks as consequential as he can,” Sellars said. “I don’t care about drawing outside the lines of what Republicans may think about it, this is within your purview you can do it, and you should do it.”
“One more thing, John, you have a hell of a vice president who has a legal pedigree to sit on the Supreme Court and let Republicans go crazy,” he added.
Taken aback, Berman asked, “Are you floating … 7:39 AM on the East Coast, did Bakari Sellars just float Vice President Kamala Harris as a potential Supreme Court nominee?”
“Not only am I floating it, I want to stir up everything,” Sellars replied.
Earlier this year, calls emerged from the left for Sotomayor to resign, as MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan led the charge with an article suggesting her age and health were factors for her to step down.
With Joe Biden trailing Trump in several swing states and Democrats also in danger of losing their razor-thin majority in the Senate, are we really prepared for history to repeat itself? Sotomayor will turn 70 in June. Of course, only Sotomayor knows the full status of her health, still it is public knowledge that she has had type 1 diabetes since she was seven; had paramedics called to her home; and is the only sitting justice to have, reportedly, traveled with a medic. To be clear: she could easily – and God willing – survive a potential Trump second term and still be dishing out dissents from the bench come 2029.
But why take that risk? Why not retire now? Why not quit the bench at the same age that justices in Belgium, Australia and Japan are forced to do so?
Trump is also apparently concerned with preserving the court’s conservative majority.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports: “George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley cited the possibility of Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas retiring to allow Trump to nominate justices with similar views Wednesday.”
The battle to curb radical liberal ideologies is heating up — expect major SCOTUS shake-ups in Trump’s next term to keep America on track with its conservative agenda.