Journalist and podcast host Josh Barro said Tuesday that he was "surprised" Justice Sonia Sotomayor hasn't "retired," as someone who is concerned about the balance of the court, and suggested now would be the right time to step down.
During a discussion on "CNN This Morning" about Sotomayor's recent comments about living in "frustration," co-host Phil Mattingly asked Barro about the intent behind her statement.
"I’m not sure there is a strategic intent behind it. I mean, it seems like a description of what her day is like. I find it a little bit surprising, given what Justice Sotomayor describes there about the stakes of what is happening before the Supreme Court, that she’s not retired. She's 69 years old, she’s been on the court for 15 years," Barro said.
"It’s quite possible the Democrats will lose control of the Senate in the next election and who knows how long it could be before there’s a next opportunity for a Democratic president to make a new appointment into the seat she sits in. Justice Scalia stuck around through the 2006 election, did not make it to 2017, which would have been the next opportunity," he continued.
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Barro added that now would be the right time for her to step down if she was truly concerned about the make-up of the court.
"It seems like that – it would be the right time strategically for her to step down in favor of somebody younger if she's very concerned about the political balance on the court," he said.
CNN host Poppy Harlow seemed shocked by the suggestion and hesitantly responded, "interesting point." She added, "Not one I've heard a lot about."
"Is that a thing?" Mattingly asked, saying, "I just haven’t heard the chatter about it." Harlow said it was now going to be a "thing," because Barro brought it up during his media appearance.
"I think it's strange there hasn't been chatter about it, I mean we've already been through this with Justice Ginsburg," Barro added.
Harlow pushed back on Barro again and noted Justice Ginsburg was "a lot older," and had health issues.
"Justice Sotomayor has diabetes," Barro responded. "A decade is a long time. I’m not saying I think Justice Sotomayor is on death’s door, by any means. But I think it’s important, given it’s a lifetime appointment, to take a very long-time horizon view on this."
He continued, "Democrats are at a structural disadvantage in the U.S. Senate. I would not assume that, you know, within the next four or six years we’ll have another occasion where there’s a Democratic president, Democratic Senate again."
Sotomayor spoke at the University of California Berkley Law school on Monday and said she lived in "frustration" among a conservative-leaning Supreme Court.
"I live in frustration. And as you heard, every loss truly traumatizes me in my stomach and in my heart. But I have to get up the next morning and keep on fighting," Sotomayor said.
"And to be almost 70 years old, this isn’t what I expected," she reportedly added during a conversation with UC Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. "But it is still work that is all consuming and I understand the impact the court has on people and on the country, and sometimes the world. And so it is what keeps me going."
