82-Year-Old Supreme Court Justice Breyer Says He’s Unsure When He’ll Retire: ‘Hard to Know Exactly’

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Justice Stephen Breyer, 82, said in an interview published Tuesday that he is not sure when he might step down from his position on the Supreme Court.

“I mean, eventually I’ll retire, sure I will,” Breyer said in the interview with Slate. “And it’s hard to know exactly when.”

He addressed the issue unprompted in response to a question about efforts to “pack” the court with more justices or to impose term limits. Breyer was appointed to the court by President Bill Clinton in 1994, and is presently one of just three members appointed by Democratic presidents. He has also been its oldest member since September, when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at the age of 87.

Ginsburg’s death came after Democrats spent years fretting about her health, with President Barack Obama attempting to convince her to step down as early as 2013.

Still, the next two years may remain an inopportune time for liberals seeking to replace Breyer. Democrats are slated to hold 50 seats in the Senate in the event they win runoff elections for Georgia’s two Senate seats in January. Republicans stand to hold 52 seats if they win the state. Another major shake-up isn’t likely to occur before the next Congress begins in January 2023, when Breyer will be 84.

Prior to Ginsburg, the last justice to die while still sitting on the court was Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016 at the age of 79. Just one of the court’s three most recent vacancies came in the form of a retirement, when Anthony Kennedy stepped down in 2018 at the age of 82.