What Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's Retirement Means
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2022
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg explains who might replace Breyer, and NPR political editor Domenico Montanaro outlines how the process will unfold.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The news broke right around noon on Wednesday. |
| 0:03.4 | Some breaking news. |
| 0:04.3 | This is big news. |
| 0:05.3 | An enormous change in New York. |
| 0:07.6 | 83-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer counted as a member of the Supreme Court's Liberal |
| 0:12.3 | Wing for more than a quarter century is retiring. |
| 0:16.6 | He is going to step down at the end of this term. |
| 0:20.0 | That means Breyer will still weigh in this year on controversial cases involving gun |
| 0:24.0 | rights and abortion. |
| 0:25.4 | Then, at the end of the summer, Breyer will step down from the court after 27 years. |
| 0:38.2 | That was Breyer speaking to MPR just last September when he refused to talk much about the idea |
| 0:43.5 | of retiring. |
| 0:45.1 | Something liberals have been loudly urging him to do ever since Joe Biden won the presidency |
| 0:50.9 | and the power to name Breyer's successor. |
| 0:54.3 | When exactly, I should retire or will retire, has many complex parts to it? |
| 1:02.7 | Consider this. |
| 1:03.7 | The decision may have been complex, but what happens now is clear. |
| 1:08.2 | Justice Breyer's retirement will not change the balance of the court, but it will give |
| 1:12.4 | Democrats a chance to name a new, younger justice who could serve for decades. |
| 1:18.4 | And in Washington, the coming months will be dominated by a fight over who that person |
| 1:23.2 | will be. |
| 1:24.7 | Bremend PR, I'm Elsa Chang. |
... |
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