Former Supreme Court Judge Reveals He Retired Partly Because a Democrat Was in the White House

Former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told NewsNation recently that a Democrat being in the White House was “probably” a factor in his decision to retire in 2022.

Dan Abrams, founder of Mediaite, aired footage from a conversation he had with Breyer at New York City’s Streicker Center last week where the pair touched on the judge’s decision to walk away from the high court.

“Was there a reason you stepped down?” Abrams asked.

“Yeah, I was about 83 years old,” Breyer said. “I hate to tell you, that is the problem with old age — you get older.”

He added he wanted to give “somebody else” a chance and figured he’d need to retire in the next year or two anyway. He also wanted to write his book Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism.

“Did it matter to you that there was a Democrat in office?” Abrams asked.

“Probably, to some degree,” Breyer said.

The judge pushed back against accusations that the Supreme Court has become too “political.”

“I think ‘political’ is a tough word and not the right word,” he said, adding he’s never seen a Justice put a political agenda ahead of the questions of law at hand.

Breyer argued no one can be “apolitical,” but they still need to suppress their personal politics.

“Every person, whether they’re a Democrat or a Republican, whether they are — they could be a socialist or they could be whatever they are, whatever their politics are, they have to have confidence in you,” he said. “They’re not saying you have to be completely apolitical because nobody would believe you are completely, 100%, but keep that down. Keep it suppressed.”

Watch above via NewsNation.