Congressional Hispanic Caucus leaders issued a statement Saturday rejecting calls for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire.
Some left-wing activists have called for Sotomayor, 69, to step down from the high court under a Democratic president to avoid a repeat situation of the vacancy caused by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in 2020.
Ginsburg, 87, died nearly four years into Republican Donald Trump’s presidency after not heeding calls to resign under Democratic President Barack Obama. In his final months in office, Trump nominated and Senate Republicans swiftly confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, increasing the number of GOP-appointed justices to six.
CHC leaders said they look forward to Sotomayor’s continued service on the Supreme Court, pointing out that she is the first and only Latina justice.
Sotomayor “has proven to be a brilliant jurist, tough questioner, and fair arbiter of the rule of law throughout her tenure on the Court,” the statement reads. “She has played a part in some of the most impactful rulings in recent American jurisprudence, many of which have protected or expanded critical rights and programs that progressive lawmakers and advocates have fought for and celebrated.”
Earlier this week, some Democratic senators weighed in on the activists’ calls without joining them.
“I think [Sotomayor] really has to weigh the competing factors,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said. “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 [the Senate] included.”
Sotomayor is the fourth-longest tenured of the nine Supreme Court justices and the oldest among those appointed by Democratic presidents. Ketanji Brown Jackson, the shortest-serving justice on the court, was appointed by President Joe Biden to replace Clinton-nominated Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired at 83 in 2022.
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Thirty-eight representatives and four senators make up the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Sotomayor was born in New York City and is of Puerto Rican descent, as are CHC members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
“Justice Sotomayor has been a trailblazer for the Latino community and has every right to serve on the Supreme Court until she makes the decision that it is best for her to retire,” Torres posted to X on Friday.
