Justice Stephen Breyer has announced that he will retire from the Supreme Court. This comes after progressives have urged him to retire ever since President Biden was inaugurated. He will stay until a new replacement has been appointed and confirmed. He formally announced his retirement at an event at the White House with President Biden.

Stephen Breyer was an appeals court judge and served in the US Sentencing Commission before being nominated for the Supreme Court. He was nominated by then President Bill Clinton and confirmed in 1994 and has been serving on the court for 28 years.

President Biden’s pick will not change the balance of the court since it has 6 conservatives and only 3 liberal justices; he will most likely nominate a liberal to the court. Biden promised as a candidate that he will nominate the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court. There are eight potential candidates and the leading candidate is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. She was confirmed to the appellate courts by the senate after President Biden nominated her. She was also formerly a clerk for Justice Stephen Breyer during his 1999-2000 term.