Published: January 26, 2022, 12:32 pm.
Last update: January 26, 2022, 01:31 AM.
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will soon fill a vacancy. Today, Judge Stephen Breyer announced his anticipated resignation.
Breyer plans to leave the Supreme Court this summer. The impending exit of Liberal Justice will allow President Joe Biden to make good on one of his campaign promises to appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court.
Expect Online Political Betting Exchange – It’s only natural that today we will see an uptick in trading activity in the SCOTUS markets.
Will the Senate Confirm a Supreme Court Justice in 2022? Less than 400 shares were traded yesterday. But since reports emerged of Breyer’s impending departure, more than 1,000 shares in circulation have resulted in Yes shares soaring to 35 cents.
The market is currently giving the Senate a 92 percent chance of confirming the next SCOTUS justice before the end of the year.
potential candidates
With Biden vowing to nominate a black woman to court, a shortlist of potential candidates has already emerged.
CNN He loves prospects for D.C. Circuit Court Judge Kitangi Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Krueger, and South Carolina U.S. District Court Judge J. Michelle Childs.
Jackson opened as the market favorite in the newly launched PredictIt regarding the next SCOTUS filter at 59 cents. Childs is next at 17 cents and Kroger is in third at 14 cents.
political make-up
Baer’s departure is not expected to alter the court’s political makeup. The Conservatives will maintain a 6-3 advantage because Biden will almost certainly nominate a left-leaning judge.
Supreme Court justices are supposed to be apolitical, but few political experts would argue that this is the case in 2022.
After Justice Harry Blackmun retired in 1994, Breyer was appointed by President Bill Clinton in May of that year and confirmed less than two and a half months later on July 29, 1994. Breyer garnered broad support in the Senate with a vote of 87-9.
Dodging calls last year for him to resign in order to allow Biden to appoint a young Democrat, the 83-year-old said such efforts only served to further politicize the court.
“It is wrong to think of the Court as another political institution,” Breyer announced at Harvard Law School. “It is doubly wrong to think of its members as political novices.”
Senate power
The United States Constitution does not specify any minimum qualification criteria for a Supreme Court nominee. This means that Biden can legally appoint anyone of his choosing. But in order for a candidate to take a seat on the court, he must receive majority support during the Senate confirmation process.
Only a simple majority is required to confirm. With Democrats currently holding a slim 50-50 majority in the Senate, VP Kamala Harris will be the cut-off vote. This means that Democrats will want to confirm Biden’s appointment before the 2022 midterm elections.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said today that Breyer’s replacement “will be confirmed by the United States Senate in full force and with all deliberate speed.”
In addition, there are 34 Senate seats up for election on November 8.
PredictIt The market in control of the Senate after the midterm elections gives the Republican Party a 76 percent chance of holding power in the upper house of Congress next year.