In a Washington Post op-ed last May, Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, urged Breyer to retire. He said there are times “when the stewards of our system must put the good of an institution they love, and of the country they love, above their own interests. They have to recognize that no one, not even a brilliant justice, is irreplaceable, and that the risks presented by remaining are more than hypothetical.”
Likely contenders include U.S. Circuit Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, a former law clerk of Breyer’s; and Leondra Kruger, a justice on California’s Supreme Court.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Biden’s nominee will “receive a prompt hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will be considered and confirmed by the full United States Senate with all deliberate speed.”
“America owes Justice Breyer an enormous debt of gratitude,” Schumer also said.
Supreme court justice with liberal views
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who voted for Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, said if Democrats “hang together,” they have the power to replace Breyer without a single Republican vote.