Hi, what a day, huh?

Mark covers the Supreme Court for Slate.

How are your notifications doing?

I had to shut them all off.

I did that new focus mode, you know, on my phone because otherwise it would have actually

exploded into flames.

I called Mark up because yesterday we learned Justice Stephen Breyer was going to do something

many progressives had been anxiously pushing him to do for a year, retire.

It's traditional for justices to announce these kind of moves in the summer after they've

worked through their annual docket.

It just cuts down on the awkward lame duck phase.

So even though Breyer is 83 years old, the most senior justice by far, this was a January

surprise for a lot of reporters.

Not Mark though.

Look, I will say not to give myself too much credit.

I predicted a little while ago that Breyer would not step down during the first summer

of Biden's presidency and would step down during the second.

Why did you predict that?

He has such a romantic view of the court.

He believes that it is a genuinely independent, nonpartisan institution.

And I think he would have felt like it was a little partisan, a little unsavory for him

to just suddenly retire because there was a Democrat in the White House.

...