After Justice Scalia’s death, then RBG’s death and then Democrats and leftists launching a pressure campaign to get Justice Breyer to step down, I predicted we would be looking at this as the new normal. And here it is.

Moneyball for Supreme Court justices means picking them young and then getting out as soon as they get old. Or older.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) made a veiled reference to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — who ignored calls to step down for years during former President Barack Obama’s tenure. She passed away in 2020, with former President Donald Trump choosing her successor.

“I’m very respectful of Justice Sotomayor,” Blumenthal told NBC. “I have great admiration for her. But I think she really has to weigh the competing factors. We should learn a lesson. And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be. The old saying — graveyards are full of indispensable people, ourselves in this body included.”

Vietnam War hero Sen. Richard Blumenthal is 78 years old. Sotomayor is 69. If anyone should be stepping down here, it’s Dick.

The obsession with booting Sotomayor is also a little on the strange side. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was 87. Justice Scalia was 79. Even if Trump comes back in 2024, Sotomayor will only be in her mid-70s. Justices, whether they retire or not, live a long time. Unless the chatter about her medical problems is more serious than just diabetes, there’s no reason to think she’s going to kick the bucket in the next 4 years.

All the hysteria over Sotomayor dying and letting Trump appoint a conservative justice seems groundless. So is there another motivation besides hoping to replace a 69-year-old with a 53-year-old?

I understand shoving Justice Breyer out the door for being too moderate, but Sotomayor, until the Left replaced Justice Breyer with Ketanji Brown Jackson, was the most vocal firebreathing leftist on the court. She’s not very good at her job and is a joke as a jurist, but since when have lefties cared all that much about it. Besides with the current lineup, Kagan plays the inside game with Roberts, while Sotomayor virtue signals.

The real question though is will Sotomayor even go for it?

After feebly protesting, Breyer allowed himself to be bullied off the bench. But I don’t think Sotomayor can be bullied. She can however likely be bribed. The question is what do you get the woman who already has one of the most prized positions in the country? Presidency of a law school? Some job where she never has to show up for work but gets paid $2 million a year? I could see Sotomayor going for the latter, but she’s also likely to want to remain in a unique historic role which means leftists are just annoying her for nothing.

Either way, Sotomayor is going to want more than Breyer settling for a Harvard professorship.

Article posted with permission from Daniel Greenfield