U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Brier spoke at an event at the Library of Congress in Washington on February 17. Evan Vuchi / Associated Press
Liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Brier will formally step down on Thursday, paving the way for President Joe Biden-appointed Ketanji Brown Jackson to take an oath of office to replace him, the court said Wednesday.
Jackson, 51, is set to become the first black woman to serve in the country’s top judiciary after being confirmed by the Senate on April 7. Breyer, 83, has been in court since 1994 and announced plans to retire in January. He will retire at noon (1600 GMT) on Thursday shortly after the court issued its final decision for its current term.
“It has been a great honor for me to participate as a judge in the efforts to uphold our Constitution and the rule of law,” Breyer said in a letter to Biden.
Breyer, the court’s oldest judge, often disagreed with the right-wing court, including last Friday when its conservative majority overturned the constitutional right to abortion recognized in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
Breyer also disagreed with another major decision last week, when conservatives in court approved for the first time the right under the US Constitution to carry a gun in public.
Jackson’s confirmation from the Senate marked a victory for Biden, who tried to infuse the federal judiciary with a wider range of experience.
Jackson, who served early in her career as a Supreme Court official for Breyer, will become the sixth female judge in history. For the first time, four women will serve on the court together. She will take Breyer’s place in the Liberal bloc of the court with a 6-3 conservative majority, whose actions in recent weeks illustrate her readiness to boldly defend her power by taking up and resolutely ruling on controversial issues.
In addition to the remarkable rulings on gun rights and abortion rulings, the court issued a series of rulings extending religious rights by cutting off the wall separating church and state.
In just the past two weeks, the court has allowed more public funding for private schools that teach and promote religion – including those that ban LGBT students and teachers – and backed a football coach at Washington State High School who was fired for running Christian prayers with players on the field after matches.
The Conservative wing of the court has been backed by the addition in 2020 of the third appointment of former President Donald Trump, Amy Connie Barrett. Her appointment changed the dynamics of the court by marginalizing Chief Justice John Roberts, allowing his conservative bloc to garner the five votes needed to settle cases without him.
Roberts is considered more of an incrementalist conservative. The other two appointed to Trump were Judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Cavanaugh.
The Conservative majority can last for years – probably decades – and has signaled interest in other major changes to the law.
The race will be big for the next term of the Supreme Court, which begins in October. A major case could put an end to the positive action policies used by colleges and universities in their admissions processes to increase their enrollment of black and Hispanic students in order to achieve diversity on campus. Terminating such policies is another goal of the Conservatives.
Another major case involving a map of Alabama County County, which a lower court found discriminated against black voters, could further weaken the Voting Rights Act, an important federal law from 1965 that prohibits racially biased actions in voting.
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