Justice Stephen Breyer (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The more the timing of his retirement is depicted as a partisan objective, the less he will want to do it. To be seen to retire “in order” to let Biden pick his successor would betray Breyer’s own career-long objective of making decisions based on what is right for the country, not for one party. That said, Breyer’s pragmatism means he knows he must weigh the costs and benefits of retiring at any given moment.
So it is absolutely essential for liberals to stop lecturing the man about it being his time to go. Every column or television comment — the more prominent, the worse — traps Breyer into having to stay out so as not to appear to be acting as a partisan.
What Breyer needs and deserves is room to maneuver, to find the best and most rational way to satisfy the complex competing interests around his retirement. The good news is, that’s his expertise. The liberal legal commentariat should stand back and let the master operate. He knows what he’s doing. Don’t make it harder for him.
— Professor Noah Feldman of Harvard Law School, in a Bloomberg opinion piece advising members of legal academia to stop telling Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, to retire from the Supreme Court. “[Breyer] can be trusted to do the right thing – provided liberal law professors don’t box him in by declaring that he ‘must’ resign,” Feldman says.
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.