Durbin: Replacing Sotomayor before new Congress not ‘realistic’

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Tuesday that talk in Washington about Justice Sonia Sotomayor retiring and filling a Supreme Court vacancy before Democrats cede control of the chamber is “idle speculation” and not “realistic.”

“Whoever makes those calls [for a retirement] can’t count,” Durbin said. “Take a look at the calendar and tell me how in the world you could achieve that without setting aside the budget and the defense authorization act and all the other things that need to be done? I don’t think it’s a realistic idea.”

Many progressives have mounted a public pressure campaign for the 70-year-old justice to retire before the second Trump presidency, fearing a repeat of 2020, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and Donald Trump replaced her with Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Sotomayor, though, has shown no openness to that idea, with close associates telling The Wall Street Journal that the justice intends to remain on the court.

Durbin told reporters he expected Democrats would continue aggressively processing judicial nominees throughout the lame-duck session — and hoped to reach consensus on a package of nominations, as Democrats agreed to in the waning days of the Trump presidency.

“I think we’ll reach that point,” he said of a package agreement.