Remember when Democrats were thrilled about Donald Trump's guilty verdicts in New York because they were convinced that it would destroy his chances of winning the presidential election in November? And then the polls remained unchanged? That was hilarious.
It's even more amusing because, despite the verdict, the panic from the left about Trump's return to the White House has gotten even worse.
For quite some time now, Democrats have been reading the tea leaves about the 2024 election and, not wanting to see a repeat of what happened with Ruth Bader Ginsburg, have been pressuring Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire so that she can be replaced with a younger, healthier leftist while the Democrats still hold the White House and the Senate. Ginsburg resisted calls to step down for years despite her poor health and passed away in 2020, giving Trump another chance to appoint a justice before the election.
Earlier this year, liberal journalist Josh Barro noted that "If Sotomayor doesn’t retire this year, she’ll be making a bet that she will remain fit to serve until possibly age 78 or even 82 or 84—and she’ll be forcing the whole Democratic Party to make that high-stakes bet with her."
According to recent reports, Sotomayor travels with a medic due to her diabetes — so Barro's concerns are arguably justifiable. Barro predicts that if Trump wins the White House and Republicans win control of the Senate, conservatives could potentially secure a commanding 7-2 majority on the Supreme Court within the next decade.
Related: Will Justice Sotomayor Retire This Year? Here's Why She Might.
Curiously, despite the verdict, the panic from the left hasn't subsided. Ian Millhiser over at Vox isn't just calling on Sotomayor to retire but Justice Elena Kagan as well. In a piece published Monday, Millhiser argues that it's more likely than not that Donald Trump will return to the White House next year, which means that "if Justices Sonia Sotomayor or Elena Kagan remain on the Supreme Court past this year, they risk allowing their seat to be filled by a convicted felon who tried to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States of America, inciting an insurrection at the United States Capitol in the process."
Even if Biden pulls off a victory in November, Millhauser argues that Democrats' chances of retaining their Senate majority are slim due to what he claims is malapportionment. Millhauser argues — I kid you not — that if Senate seats were fairly distributed based on population, Republicans wouldn’t have controlled the Senate since the late 1990s. I guess he was absent that day in class when his teacher taught that in our bicameral legislature, Senate seats are given equally to all states while the House is based on population. Regardless, he predicts that if Democrats lose the Senate this November, they might not regain it until 2030 or later, potentially making the Senate permanently Republican.
That means that, unless Sotomayor (who turns 70 this month) and Kagan (who is 64) are certain that they will survive well into the 2030s, now is their last chance to leave their Supreme Court seats to someone who won’t spend their tenure on the bench tearing apart everything these two women tried to accomplish during their careers.
You could argue that between Sotomayor's age and health, it makes sense — if you're a leftist — for her to resign so Biden can nominate a younger replacement to insult the liberal minority on the court. I can buy that. But Kagan as well? That's some extreme panic happening on the left.
