Breyer’s Retirement Gives Democrats a Dose of (Cautious) Optimism
The New York Times
After a series of legislative losses, the chance for President Biden to fulfill a promise by nominating a Black woman was seen by progressives as a chance to show he could still bring about change.
WASHINGTON — Black and progressive allies of President Biden, discouraged by dispiriting legislative losses on social spending and voting rights, said on Wednesday that they see the chance for Mr. Biden to name a replacement for Justice Stephen G. Breyer as a welcome opportunity for a shift in focus and a much-needed win.
The president urged patience as Justice Breyer worked through his announcement — “I’m happy to talk about it later,” Mr. Biden told reporters — but it made him just about the only Democrat in Washington who refrained from immediately drawing up lists of potential replacements based on his campaign promise to nominate a Black woman to the court.
“My first thought is just that it moves us one step closer in a long journey towards racial justice,” Representative Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat of California, said in an interview. “It’s really about what you want America to be over the next 50 years.”
