Justice Stephen Breyer to retire from Supreme Court

Old breyer is the oldest justice on the conservative 6-3 court and the most senior member of its liberal wing we'd like to begin with bringing in our Senior national correspondent, terry moran, uh, terry, definitely known as the court's most famous pragmatist.

That's a great way of putting it cara. He is in an era of surging ideological attitudes on the court and a sharply divided chord left and right. Stephen breyer always tried to strike a more moderate tone.

He had both in oral arguments and his opinions. Mostly, he Tried to uh bridge the gap there. He was a liberal, no question about it, but a pragmatic liberal.

He always seemed to focus on the impact that cases had on the real lives of real people. He was less concerned even though he had been a university professor and had a very professorial demeanor in court. He really did focus on on what impact things might have had on ordinary people.

This is no surprise. He will gladden the heart of liberals across the country who have Been openly pressuring stephen breyer to retire, given the possibility that republicans will take the senate and once again dominate selections on the court. Breyer said last year.

If the public sees judges as politicians and robes its confidence in the court can only diminish which bothered a lot of liberals, because they thought he was pushing back on their Efforts to persuade him. That now is the time to retire. He's in good health he's been working, full-time and an active participant in both arguments in these big cases, but he has decided for whatever reason he has made that clear at this point to retire now, and it is a big opportunity for president biden to restore some.

Perhaps stronger liberal voice on the court

terry, let's talk about the balance of the court as we we Look at the the philosophy here. Both from the liberal and conservative side, I mean calling for briar's retirement is not no is not new uh. Almost as soon as president biden was elected, progressives uh really put the the demand down for breyer to step down.

They really did they were outside his house. If they, if they saw him, I mean it was, it was a full campaign. Somebody Rented a truck at one point, drove it around the supreme court, big sign on its side, trying to get him to retire.

It was in the eyes of the justices unseemly they. They think their authority their the way, the public trusts their opinions can only come from at least them seeming to be above the politics of the moment, and there were some people who thought it would backfire, because justice breyer is an openly open advocate of non-political as Much as possible judges And justices, and he lived his life on the court that way to a considerable degree, but it it will come as good news to the liberals because of the opportunity and justice bryan. As he said, he's been on the court a long time.

He's achieved a lot, he didn't have any, as I say, sweeping jurisprudential approach, but he leaves behind him a legacy of a justice who tried to remind the others on the court. Once again, an oral argument should hear him do it and in his opinions you know that their cases weren't just about arranging the law but had impact on people's lives and that drew him to his conclusions. In many cases, that's something that the court lacks.

Sometimes sometimes it's a very abstract court and justice brian tried to bring it back down to earth. Well, quite a legacy, indeed a legacy that kate shaw has followed for many of years. Who follows the supreme court for us as an abc news, contributor, kate, as we confirm this news that stephen breyer is retiring from the supreme court.

How do you feel about what he leaves behind uh with regard to his legacy and also the possible contenders here to replace him well kyra. I think that liberals and progressives are definitely breathing a sigh of relief right now. Breyer had sent Mixed signals about his plans.

Despite his age and the possibility that you know the republicans may take the senate in the midterms and so um, there will be a lot of relief today that it looks like president biden will be able to fill this vacancy and filling that vacancy won't change. The balance of the court, of course breyer, was appointed by president bill clinton, so this would be a nominee. You know in the same potential sort of broad spirit as justice breyer but as Terry was saying, justice breyer was the most senior liberal justice after justice, ruth bader ginsburg died just over a year ago, but he was no means the furthest left on the court.

So I do think that president biden has the opportunity to put onto the court a nominee who is both more progressive than justice, breyer, um and importantly, quite a bit younger than justice breyer um. There are nominees on the shortlist in their 40s and early 50s, and president biden has Suggested very strongly that he would like to nominate a woman of color, ideally an african-american woman to the supreme court, which would be a first if he, if he does put an African-American woman on the court - and there are some very, very distinguished shortlisters, whose names we have heard in circulation: one judge, katanji brown jackson, a judge on the dc circuit she's, actually a former briar clerk herself and an extremely distinguished jurist after a Very distinguished career. In practice, the dc circuit is kind of like the junior supreme court.

It's the second most powerful court in the country, so that's a natural stepping stone to the supreme court. We've also heard the name: leandra kruger, also an african-american woman, a justice on the california supreme court, also an incredibly distinguished career in the federal government. She argued before the supreme court many times in the solicitor General's office and has now been on the california supreme court.

For about seven years, so I think those two are at the top of the list, and you know they would cement a younger female three justice liberal minority on the court, and you know I think that it's significant potentially that there would be a third woman in The liberal block at the moment the court is poised potentially to overturn roe versus wade potentially to roll back or even eliminate affirmative Action to you know, restrict states abilities to limit guns. So this is a very conservative court with a very long list of action items, and so you know there could be some transformational effect that this nominee could have on what this court looks like our chief washington, correspondent, jonathan carl, as we get this news, john. Just looking ahead at the confirmation process, this No doubt will be an interesting one to follow.

It will be with a 50-50 senate uh and uh. The vice president casting the tie-breaking vote here. What's interesting is supreme court confirmations uh had long uh been uh required, a supermajority uh because you needed to overcome um any uh.

You know potential uh, filibuster, uh, but now uh joe biden can thank mitch mcconnell for Changing the senate roles on that fund. It now only requires a simple majority to confirm a a supreme court nominee under senate rules, and if you look back donald trump had three nominees that got confirmed almost entirely on party line votes. His first nominee gorsuch had only three democrats.

His second one had only a single democrat in the and his last uh amy coney barrett was was entirely along Party lines. So all joe biden needs to do to get his nominee confirmed here is to keep every single democrat on board. He could actually do this without a single republican vote, but you know it's one thing here to remember that it isn't all that long ago, that uh supreme court nominations uh were were largely uh, nonpartisan or or less Partisan affairs.

If you think about uh the two most prominent uh, conservative and liberal on the court, rbg was confirmed 96 to three when she was nominated by bill clinton. Antonin scalia, the the conservative hero on the court, was confirmed without a single vote against him. Uh 98 to nothing.

Obviously, we live in much different times right now, and this will undoubtedly be a contentious process, no matter who Biden chooses well contentious indeed, but he did make that promise that it would be a woman of color, terry moran. Finally, final thoughts here as we move forward and now that we have confirmed indeed that stephen breyer will retire. We do look forward to the future here and what it holds.

We do, and it's been said and truly, that every new justice changes. The court as a whole changes the nature of the Discussions and, and sometimes the decisions as well and with president biden's pledge to name a woman of color, the first, a black woman potentially on the supreme court. That is something that he has considered and been pressed to do it would change uh the court, not just demographically, but in the life experience that are brought that are brought to these cases and i'd like to add the the name of uh judge jay michelle child.

A federal district court Judge in south carolina who has been jim clyburn representative, jim clyburn, the democratic uh congressman from south carolina, has been championing her. He basically helped joe biden get elected when he endorsed him in south carolina and she would bring a different kind of experience as well. She is a she has a statewide uh election background.

She was elected, statewide official a couple of times, and that is Something the court desperately needs practical experience at the state government level, but in general what it actually will do is change the nature of the discussions in the court, and I think that is something that The court looks forward to at the end of an era and briar represented a little bit more moderate. A little more friendly across those ideological divides with very sharp political divides. Now and my hunch Is that whatever the court's corgi tradition of cordiality is we're about to get a more sharply divided ideological supreme court, an end of an era and looking forward to a new era.

Indeed, terry moran, kate, shaw, jonathan carl. Thank you so much. You continue watching our coverage on abc news, live, i'm kyra, phillips and, of course, david muir on world news tonight.

We now take you back to regular programming. This has been abc news Special report. This has been a special report from abc news.