Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, is reportedly ignoring calls from some on the left for her to step down and allow President Biden to try to appoint a younger successor before Trump takes office in January.
Sotomayor, the third-oldest judge on the bench, has Type 1 diabetes. “She’s in great health, and the court needs her now more than ever,” one source told CNN.
Sotomayor has said publicly that she sometimes cries after the court hands down its decisions, and that she lived with “frustration” over the court’s direction and that “every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart.”
“But I have to get up the next morning and keep on fighting,” she said.
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was asked about Justice Sotomayor stepping down, and stated it was not a sensible idea.
The process of moving a Supreme Court nominee takes considerable time — often several months. Even assuming there are no problems with a potential nominee, there is not likely enough time for Biden to secure a confirmation before the GOP takes control of the Senate in early January.
