Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced Wednesday that he is retiring from the bench, giving President Joe Biden his first opportunity to appoint a jurist to the top court in the nation, NBC News reports.
One of the three consistent liberals on the Supreme Court, the 83-year-old Breyer is the oldest justice on the court. Breyer’s retirement should give Biden a clear path to appoint a justice because Democrats hold the majority in the Senate and Mitch McConnell has no opportunity to obstruct a nomination like he did with the vacancy created when Antonin Scalia died in January 2016, when Barack Obama was president.
Liberal activists have pushed for the appointment of a Black woman to the Supreme Court, which would likely be the first time the conservative members of the court will have to deal with a Black female peer in their entire professional lives.