Justice Sonia Sotomayor has come under increasing pressure from the Left to retire from the Supreme Court to allow Democrat President Joe Biden to appoint a replacement before the critical November election.
Former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan is among several prominent leftists calling on Sotomayor to step down.
Hasan initially made the comments on April 1, but he wasn’t trying to fool anyone.
That’s because the Left understands that President Donald Trump taking the presidency in November 2024 might not only be possible, it might even be quite likely.
Liberals are terrified that Sotomayor won’t be able to make it through four years of Trump and might retire during his potential term from 2025 to 2029.
As a result, many liberals like Hasan are urging Sotomayor to step down so that Biden can replace her with a liberal judge before Trump gets another chance at the presidency.
“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?” Hassan said.
“Sotomayor will turn 70 in June.”
A few days later, he was on CNN defending his statements to the rest of the panel on Jake Tapper’s show:
“I have PTSD from 2020, I think the Democrats didn’t learn lessons.
“Look, what are we talking about, abortion rights?
“How did that happen? Dobbs [v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization], how did the Florida decision happen today?
“[Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis appointed five of the seven judges.
“Republicans are very good at stacking courts and getting their people on courts and thinking strategically about filling courts.
“Democrats aren’t very good at seeing the power of the Supreme Court.
“And that’s why I worry. I worry that, why would you want to repeat history? Why take the risk?
“You have a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate, and you have a justice who is about to turn 70,” Hasan concluded.
Hasan even said that Sotomayor’s choice about when to retire is so much bigger than her that it isn’t just a matter of her personal choice.
This is bigger than that.
“It shouldn‘t be a personal choice. The U.S. Supreme Court is one of the only supreme courts in a democratic world that has lifetime tenure.
“It’s mad, England doesn’t have it.
“Belgium doesn‘t have it. Spain doesn‘t have it.
“Australia, New Zealand, you either have term limits or you have a 70 retirement age.
“What are people doing in their 80s on the Supreme Court?
“Or running for president, some might ask?”
WATCH:
"I have PTSD from 2020 [& RBG]…The Republicans are very good at stacking courts… Democrats aren't very good at seeing the power of the Supreme Court."
I debated & defended my Guardian piece calling for Justice Sotomayor to retire so a Dem president + Senate can replace her. pic.twitter.com/JEPMWaA2g2
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 3, 2024
“Biden, elected Democrats, and liberals and progressives across the board should be both publicly and privately encouraging Sotomayor to consider what she wants her legacy to be, to remember what happened with [Ruth Bader Ginsburg], and to not take any kind of gamble with the future of our democracy,” Hasan had said in his column.
