- President Biden did not personally push for Breyer to retire from the Supreme Court, per The NYT.
- Biden told his advisors that an attempt to force Breyer’s hand could misfire, per the report.
- Many progressives for had called on Breyer to step down, fearful of a more conservative court.
When President Joe Biden formally announced on Thursday that Justice Stephen Breyer would retire from the Supreme Court at the end of his term later this year, it was a full-circle moment for both men.
After Breyer was nominated by President Bill Clinton to succeed retiring Justice Harry Blackmun in 1994, Biden — in his capacity as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee — led the confirmation process of the then-appeals court judge.
This week, the president — nearly 28 years removed from Breyer’s successful confirmation to the court — ruminated on the unique moment in the Roosevelt Room at the White House before the jurist delivered his remarks.
“We were joking with one another when he walked in: Did we ever think that he would have served decades on the Court and I’d be President of the United States on the day he came in to retire?” Biden said. “And he looked at it — anyway, I won’t tell you what he said. I’m joking.”
The president quipped about the rather unusual circumstance, but his high regard for Breyer remained steadfast over the years — a major factor in his refusal to pressure the justice to retire from the bench, according to The New York Times.
Breyer — who will leave behind a highly consequential legacy as a moderate liberal on the court — in recent months faced intense calls by liberal groups to step down from the bench to clear the way for Biden to appoint a younger justice.
With conservatives holding a 6-3 edge on the court and a Democratic-controlled Senate…