A liberal pundit Sunday floated nominating failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris to replace US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor while the Democrats still cling to power.
Bakari Sellers, a CNN commentator and former state lawmaker in South Carolina, was adamant on social media that progressives need to ramp up pressure on Sotomayor, a 70-year-old type 1 diabetic, to step aside even as she resists the effort.
“Sotomayor needs to resign. The court is currently 6-3. [Her resignation] would limit Trumps ability to make it 7-2. It’s silly to believe there is no difference,” Sellers wrote on X.
“[The Senate] can confirm in 10 weeks (see ACB [Amy Coney Barrett]). You have very good previously vetted candidates…. Sri Srinivasan, Robert Wilkins, Michelle Childs and yes Kamala Harris (though she likely doesn’t get Manchin’s vote),” the party pundit said.
Democrats enjoy control over the White House and Senate until early January. It is unclear whether Harris, 60, would be receptive to the notion of her serving as a justice.
Presidents often nominate individuals to the country’s highest court who have actual experience serving as a judge, though that’s not always the case. Some progressives have previously mused about former President Barack Obama serving on the top court.
“I don’t want Justice Sotomayor to be another Ruth Bader Ginsburg in terms of staying too long,” Sellers told CNN last week, referring to the late justice whose death paved the way for a GOP replacement.
“The possibility of Justice Sotomayor having to resign or retire in the next four years is extremely high,” the former pol claimed.
Sotomayor, the most senior of the liberal justices on the bench, has had medical issues in the past, including records indicating that she has previously traveled with a medic.
She has also publicly talked about being exhausted with her demanding workload on the Supreme Court.
The top jurist has not publicly commented on the Democratic pressure campaign for her to step aside.
But some of her allies are backing her up.
“This is no time to lose her important voice on the court. She just turned 70 and takes better care of herself than anyone I know,” a source close to Sotomayor told the Wall Street Journal.
But top of mind for at least some Democrats is Ginsburg, a liberal icon who refused to step down when Democrats had control of the White House and Senate between 2009 and early 2015.
She died in September 2020, which enabled then-President Donald Trump to name her replacement.
Conservatives then bumped their majority on the high court up to 6-3, enabling them to overturn Roe v. Wade, among other high-profile decisions.
Progressives successfully lobbied Justice Stephen Breyer to step down in 2022.
Pressure against Sotomayor has mounted for some time, including before the Nov. 5 election amid fears the GOP would recapture the Senate.
In addition to retaking the White House, Republicans also won the Senate this time around, meaning Democrats won’t be able to stall if the GOP appoints a new justice during the next two years.
There’s also uncertainty about whether Democrats can take back the upper chamber in 2026.
“This would probably be a good day for Sotomayor to retire,” David Dayen, executive editor of the left-leaning American Prospect magazine, candidly wrote on X after Trump’s presidential victory last week.
Senate Democrats are internally deliberating about how far they should go in trying to push Sotomayor to step aside before Trump roars back into the White House.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 83, says he is against the move.
The senator, asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday whether he thinks Sotomayor should step down, replied, “No, I don’t.
“I don’t think that’s the sensible approach,” he said — while acknowledging he is aware of the effort to get her out.
Sotomayor, who was nominated to the Supreme Court in 2009 by then-President Obama, is widely ranked as the most progressive member of the bench.
She has emerged as one of the most forceful liberal and at times emotional voices on the bench during contentious oral arguments. In late 2021, for example, she questioned whether the Supreme Court could “survive the stench” of overturning Roe.
Meanwhile, some GOP operatives are privately looking at the longevity of conservative justices on the bench such as Clarence Thomas, 76, and Samuel Alito, 74, as they hope to retain their influence on the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court’s current term began last month.
