US Politics

Jonathan Freedland and Julian Borger discuss Joe Biden’s strategy when it comes to potential war with Russia over Ukraine, as well as some potentially good news at home for the president as he gets the chance to nominate a liberal pick to the supreme court

How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

Archive: BBC, WION, CSPAN, CBS Buy tickets for Hettie Judah’s Guardian livestreamed conversation with the artist Lubaina Himid. Send your questions and feedback to [email protected]. Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts. More

US federal health agency failing on crises, says watchdogGovernment Accountability Office says ‘persistent deficiencies’ at HHS have hindered response to public health emergencies The US government’s main health agency is failing to meet its responsibilities for leading the national response to public health emergencies – including the coronavirus pandemic – extreme weather disasters and even potential bioterrorist attacks, a federal watchdog said Thursday.The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said it is designating the Health and Human Services Department’s leadership and coordination of public health emergencies as a “high risk” area for the government.While that designation carries no immediate penalties, it signals to Congress that lawmakers need to pay special attention to the agency’s operations.Long-standing “persistent deficiencies” at HHS “have hindered the nation’s response to the current Covid-19 pandemic and a variety of past threats,” the GAO said in its report. “If left unaddressed, these deficiencies will continue to hamper the nation’s ability to be prepared for, and effectively respond to, future threats.”The shortfalls include managing the medical supply chain, coordinating with federal and state agencies and providing clear and consistent communication to the public and the health care community, the GAO said.The report is part of the GAO’s evaluation of the government’s pandemic response. It was released as US senators of both parties came out with draft legislation this week calling for a close study of the pandemic and an overhaul of HHS’ capabilities.Among the lawmakers’ priorities are closer congressional oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an HHS agency, building out the supply chain and improving coordination from the top rungs of HHS. Some of those address issues raised by the GAO report.The report did not assign blame to individual officials, in the current or past administrations.The GAO said that of 115 recommendations it has made to HHS over the past 15 years on public health emergencies, 72 have not been fully put in place.Last year, the White House issued a plan for updating the pandemic response, but it was not couched in terms of fixing serious shortcomings.Under both the Biden and the Trump administrations, HHS has taken a back seat to the White House in management of the coronavirus pandemic even though its scientists, doctors, disease detectives and service providers carry out most of the day-to-day work.The GAO said it found “persistent deficiencies” in five main areas. They include establishing clear responsibilities for government agencies, collecting and analyzing data to inform decision-makers and providing clear communication to the public.TopicsBiden administrationUS politicsCoronavirusnewsReuse this content More

Key events

Show

4.30pm EST

16:30

Zelenskiy speaks to Biden and thanks US for military assistance to Ukraine

2.32pm EST

14:32

Harris will play ‘central role’ in supreme court nomination process, Psaki says

1.17pm EST

13:17

Today so far

1.11pm EST

13:11

Breyer offers optimistic outlook for America’s future as he announces retirement

12.50pm EST

12:50

Biden reiterates commitment to nominating Black woman to supreme court

12.40pm EST

12:40

‘I’m here today to express the nation’s gratitude to Justice Stephen Breyer,’ Biden says

12.29pm EST

12:29

Breyer confirms retirement, saying he will step down this summer

Live feed

Show

Show key events only

From

12.50pm EST

12:50

Biden reiterates commitment to nominating Black woman to supreme court

Joe Biden applauded Justice Stephen Breyer’s work on the supreme court over the past 27 years, and he pledged to nominate someone who would follow in his footsteps.
The president also reiterated his commitment to nominating a Black woman to the supreme court, which will mark a historic first for the US.

CSPAN
(@cspan)
President Biden: “The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court.” #SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/M1e0IJVPWu

January 27, 2022

“I‘ve made no decision except one,” Biden said of his chosen nominee. “The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States supreme court.”
Biden said it was “long overdue” to have a Black woman on the high court, adding, “I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment.”
While he has not yet chosen his nominee, Biden said he will review candidates’ qualifications and make a decision “before the end of February”.

Updated
at 12.54pm EST

4.53pm EST

16:53

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said that Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s team had seen the US response to Russia’s demands before it was delivered to the Kremlin yesterday.
“No objections on the Ukrainian side,” Kuleba said in a tweet earlier today. “Important that the U.S. remains in close contact with Ukraine before and after all contacts with Russia. No decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine. Golden rule.”
Joe Biden and Zelenskiy likely discussed the US response during their phone call this afternoon as well. In its response, the White House made clear it still supports Ukraine’s right to pursue Nato membership.

Dmytro Kuleba
(@DmytroKuleba)
We had seen the written response of the U.S. before it was handed over to Russia. No objections on the Ukrainian side. Important that the U.S. remains in close contact with Ukraine before and after all contacts with Russia. No decisions on Ukraine without Ukraine. Golden rule.

January 27, 2022

4.30pm EST

16:30

Zelenskiy speaks to Biden and thanks US for military assistance to Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Joe Biden spoke by phone this afternoon about the ongoing efforts to deescalate tensions at Ukraine’s border and avoid a Russian invasion.
“Had a long phone conversation with @POTUS. Discussed recent diplomatic efforts on de-escalation and agreed on joint actions for the future,” the Ukrainian president said on Twitter.
“Thanked President @JoeBiden for the ongoing military assistance. Possibilities for financial support to Ukraine were also discussed.”

Володимир Зеленський
(@ZelenskyyUa)
Had a long phone conversation with @POTUS. Discussed recent diplomatic efforts on de-escalation and agreed on joint actions for the future. Thanked President @JoeBiden for the ongoing military assistance. Possibilities for financial support to Ukraine were also discussed. pic.twitter.com/pAsQLYAuig

January 27, 2022

Biden and Zelenskiy were expected to speak this afternoon, but the White House has not yet released its own readout of the conversation.
The call came one day after the US delivered its written response to Russia’s demands on Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin builds up his troop presence along the border. In its response, the White House made clear that it still supports Ukraine’s right to pursue Nato membership.

4.20pm EST

16:20

The Guardian’s Jennifer Rankin and Julian Borger report:
Russia has said it is willing to continue talks with the US over European security, but is not optimistic about their prospects after Washington and Nato allies again rejected a key part of Russia’s proposed new order for post-cold war security.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said “there isn’t much reason to be optimistic” after the US and Nato rejected Moscow’s demands for a veto on Ukraine’s potential membership of Nato in a co-ordinated response the day before.
Moscow needed time to analyse the US document and would not “rush into assessments”, Peskov added.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow’s main concern – the potential for Ukraine to join Nato – had not been addressed, but there was hope “for the start of a serious conversation on secondary issues”.
“There is no positive response in this document on the main issue,” he said.
One of Lavrov’s spokespeople appeared to rule out war with Ukraine, in comments that led to a jump in the value of the Russian rouble, as investors gained confidence that conflict could be avoided.

4.02pm EST

16:02

Joe Biden met with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store in Washington today to discuss the diplomatic efforts to avoid a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“The two discussed joint efforts, including through Nato and the OSCE, to address Russia’s destabilizing military buildup along Ukraine’s borders,” the White House said in its readout of the meeting.
“They also discussed enhancing the US-Norway partnership in tackling a range of challenges, including climate change, ending the Covid-19 pandemic and establishing sustainable health security financing, and humanitarian support for Afghanistan. President Biden thanked the Prime Minister for Norway’s leadership as president of the UN security council this month.”
Biden was also expected to speak to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, this afternoon, but the White House has not yet released any readout from that conversation.

Updated
at 4.05pm EST

3.42pm EST

15:42

Senator Joe Manchin said today that he would feel comfortable supporting a supreme court nominee who may be more liberal than he is.
In an interview with West Virginia MetroNews’s Hoppy Kercheval, Manchin said he takes the process of considering a supreme court nominee very seriously and looked forward to meeting the person chosen by Joe Biden.

MetroNews
(@WVMetroNews)
Justice Stephen Breyer will formally announce his retirement from the Supreme Court. Manchin supported 2 of the 3 nominees from Donald Trump. Manchin talks about whether or not he will support President Biden’s nominee to @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nm85Y pic.twitter.com/HHp8Mrom7Y

January 27, 2022

“It’s not too hard to get more liberal than me. So, it would not bother me having a person who was sound in their thought process, had been sound in their disbursement of justice and the rule of law, just because their personal beliefs [are different than mine],” Manchin said.
“As far as just the philosophical beliefs, no, that will not prohibit me from supporting somebody.”
Because of the 50-50 split in the Senate, Biden’s supreme court nominee will need the support of every Democratic member to get confirmed (assuming all Republicans oppose confirmation), so Manchin’s vote is crucial.

3.13pm EST

15:13

Ed Pilkington

Joe Biden’s confirmation that he is still studying the résumés of supreme court candidates and has yet to make his pick will do little to settle nerves among progressives still smarting from Donald Trump’s three supreme court appointments.
Many Democrats want the president to emulate the warp speed with which the Trump administration drove through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett in less than six weeks following Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September 2020.
The Washington Post, citing an anonymous source, said that the majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, is aiming for a similar timeline.
Replacing Breyer with a like-minded justice is seen by many Democrats as critical in preserving the already beleaguered rump of liberals on the bench. The retiring justice is one of only three such individuals on the nine-justice court, and they are so outnumbered that the country now faces drastic changes in several key areas from abortion to guns and affirmative action.
Despite the pressure for haste among his party’s members, Biden insisted that he would be “rigorous” in choosing the nominee. He would listen to advice from senators and meet candidates, indicating a selection process that is likely to take weeks not days.

2.56pm EST

14:56

Jen Psaki also criticized some Republicans who are already attacking Joe Biden’s supreme court nominee as “radical”, even though they do not yet know who the nominee will be.
“As you heard the president say directly, he’s going to work in good faith with senators of both parties,” the White House press secretary said at her daily briefing.
But Psaki added that it was important to be clear about some of the “games” Republicans are already playing as Biden begins the search for a nominee to replace Stephen Breyer on the supreme court.

Bloomberg Quicktake
(@Quicktake)
Biden will work “in good faith” with members of both parties to select a nominee to replace Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court, @PressSec says https://t.co/jGLZWsQkuD pic.twitter.com/7DK3fxcjnB

January 27, 2022

“We have not mentioned a single name. We have not put out a list. The president made it very clear he has not made a selection,” Psaki said.
“If anyone is saying they plan to characterize whoever he nominates, after thorough consideration with both parties, as radical before they know literally anything about who she is, they just obliterated their own credibility.”
Psaki reiterated that Biden is committed to consulting with members of both parties to ensure his nominee is “worthy of the excellence and decency of Breyer’s legacy”.

Updated
at 3.14pm EST

2.32pm EST

14:32

Harris will play ‘central role’ in supreme court nomination process, Psaki says

Vice-President Kamala Harris is expected to play a “central role” as Joe Biden selects his nominee to replace Stephen Breyer on the supreme court, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
A reporter at the daily White House briefing asked Psaki which members of the Biden administration will be closely involved in the search for a supreme court nominee.

CSPAN
(@cspan)
.@PressSec Jen Psaki on Supreme Court nominee selection process: “The Vice President will play a central role in this process.” pic.twitter.com/yizd5GMaib

January 27, 2022

“The vice-president will play a central role in this process, and the President intends to consult with her very closely,” Psaki replied.
“Obviously, she has a long history as a former attorney general, as a member of the judiciary committee, and he respects her opinion greatly.”
The press secretary noted that White House chief of staff Ron Klain and some of Biden’s senior advisers, including Cedric Richmond, will also be involved in the process.
Harris had been mentioned as a potential choice for Biden’s nominee, but the White House has downplayed that possibility, saying the president and the vice-president look forward to running for reelection together in 2024.

2.13pm EST

14:13

Russia remains open but ‘not optimistic’ over Ukraine talks
The White House has said it will have a read out later this afternoon after US President Joe Biden is expected to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The call is being described by the White House as a ‘check in’ rather than about a specific announcement.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and Julian Borger in Washington DC have the latest news wrap on the diplomacy.
They report: ‘Russia has said it is willing to continue talks with the US over European security, but is not optimistic about their prospects after Washington and Nato allies again rejected a key part of Russia’s proposed new order for post-cold war security.
Tensions have soared in recent weeks as Russia massed more than 100,000 soldiers and heavy weapons at its border with Ukraine, raising fears of an invasion.
On Thursday, Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said “there isn’t much reason to be optimistic” after the US and Nato rejected Moscow’s demands for a veto on Ukraine’s potential membership of Nato in a co-ordinated response the day before.’
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow’s main concern – the potential for Ukraine to join Nato – had not been addressed, but there was hope “for the start of a serious conversation on secondary issues”.’ More

Biden to nominate first Black woman to sit on supreme court by end of FebruaryUS president announced plans for court at White House event marking retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer01:04Joe Biden intends to announce his nominee to become the first Black woman to sit on the US supreme court by the end of February, the president said on Thursday at a formal White House event to mark the retirement of the liberal-leaning justice Stephen Breyer.Lauding the retiring justice as a “beacon of wisdom” and a “model public servant at a time of great division in this country”, Biden pledged to replace him with someone worthy of Breyer’s “legacy of excellence and decency”. He said the nominee would have “extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity, and that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States supreme court.”He added: “It is long overdue in my view.”Biden’s confirmation that he is still studying the résumés of candidates and has yet to make his pick will do little to settle nerves among progressives still smarting from Donald Trump’s three supreme court appointments. Many Democrats want the president to emulate the warp speed with which the Trump administration drove through the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett in less than six weeks following Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September 2020.The Washington Post, citing an anonymous source, said that the majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, is aiming for a similar timeline.Replacing Breyer with a like-minded justice is seen by many Democrats as critical in preserving the already beleaguered rump of liberals on the bench. The retiring justice is one of only three such individuals on the nine-justice court, and they are so outnumbered that the country now faces drastic changes in several key areas from abortion to guns and affirmative action.Despite the pressure for haste among his party’s members, Biden insisted that he would be “rigorous” in choosing the nominee. He would listen to advice from senators and meet candidates, indicating a selection process that is likely to take weeks not days.For his part, Justice Breyer is hoping that his successor can be confirmed and in place within the next six months. In his formal retirement letter to Biden, he said he would step down at the start of the court’s summer recess in June or July, “assuming that by then my successor has been nominated and confirmed”.Speaking in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Breyer made a lyrical paean to American unity. Recalling a speech he likes to deliver to school students, he said that the US was an experiment that is still going on.“My children and grandchildren will determine whether the experiment will last, and as an optimist I’m pretty sure that it will,” he said.Biden first committed himself to promoting a Black woman to the nation’s highest court at a presidential debate against Trump during the 2020 presidential campaign. The promise was reportedly made after intense prodding by the prominent South Carolina Democrat Jim Clyburn, who endorsed Biden the following day in a move that helped propel him into the White House.Though the race is now on to confirm Breyer’s replacement before the court’s term reaches its summer recess, there are large hurdles ahead. Looming over the proceedings is the evenly divided 50-50 split in the US Senate, the chamber that will preside over the confirmation hearings of whomsoever Biden picks.The Democrats hold the casting vote with Vice-President Kamala Harris, but they will need to keep all 50 senators on board during the process. That is a challenge that has eluded the Biden administration in recent months with the high-profile defections of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema over vital issues ranging from the president’s Build Back Better legislation to overcoming the filibuster to secure essential voting rights reforms.To reduce any risk of Democratic splits, Schumer will also be looking to lure Republican moderates such as Susan Collins from Maine and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska to their side.Then there are the nationwide midterm elections in November which will inevitably place a partisan political pall over the confirmation process. Republicans have already begun to test out lines of attack, predicting that Biden’s nominee will be, in the words of the senator from Florida Rick Scott, “a radical liberal with extremist views”.Rightwing Twitter feeds have also lit up with claims that Biden’s choice of a Black woman would constitute unlawful sex and race discrimination. Those playing the affirmative-action card were forgetting that in 1980 Ronald Reagan pledged to pick the first woman to sit on the nation’s highest court, appointing Sandra Day O’Connor the following year.Republican leaders will be hoping that by portraying Biden’s choice as a culture wars threat to American values they will help to drive out the party’s base to the polling booths on 8 November.Similar calculations will be at play on the Democratic side. Party strategists will want to leverage the nomination of a Black woman as an energizing factor at the polls for important elements of its electorate who include African Americans, women and progressive voters. TopicsUS supreme courtJoe BidenLaw (US)US politicsnewsReuse this content More

Melania Trump’s auction of NFT, hat and painting fall short of $250,000 opening bidSteep dive in crypto market resulted in final bid of about $170,000 – $80,000 short of the starting bid threshold What do Melania Trump’s wide-brimmed white hat, a painting of her wearing the hat and an NFT of an animated version of the hat have in common?They were all put up for auction by the former first lady – and as of early Wednesday, failed to rake in the target price of a $250,000 opening bid.Trump announced earlier this month that she would auction off the autographed hat, which she wore to meet the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his wife during an official state visit in 2018. The auction also included a watercolor painting of herself wearing the hat and a non-fungible token, or NFT, of the painting.She insisted that all bids be made in Solana tokens, a cryptocurrency.When the auction concluded on Wednesday there were only five bids on the items, each around the minimum requirement of 1,800 Solana tokens.Although the minimum number of tokens was met, a steep dive in the crypto market over the last two weeks resulted in the final bid being approximately $170,000 – about $80,000 short of the opening bid threshold.“The auction winner will receive a personalized letter from Mrs. Trump, accompanying the hat and watercolor on paper and certifying authenticity. The NFT will be minted on the Solana Blockchain,” said a statement released earlier this month from the Office of Melania Trump.It said a “portion” of the proceeds derived from the auction would be given to provide people “who have been in the foster care community with access to computer science and technology education”.The auction collection, named “Head of State”, marks Trump’s second high-profile venture into NFTs and cryptocurrency. In December, she put up for sale an NFT titled Melania’s Vision: a watercolor painting of her eyes.TopicsMelania TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Kinky, us? Guardian readers can’t all beWe, us and our | The US republic | Unpoetic fan chants | It’s all good for the stockpot | Jacob Rees-Mogg I wish the Guardian would stop using “we” and “us” to mean “some people” (How Covid killed the one-night stand – and made us all kinkier, 27 January). The chances that we are all kinkier are nil, as many of us weren’t kinky in the first place and mostly, I imagine, still aren’t. Also, there’s a heading about “our obsession with fish oil”. I’m so obsessed with fish oil that I can’t recall when I last even thought about it; surely I’m not the only one.Mark MillerKendal, Cumbria Thomas Zimmer ignores the fact that the United States is a republic, not a democracy (The US Senate presents a long-term threat to US democracy, 24 January). Americans pledge allegiance to “this republic”, not to this democracy. The US Senate and the electoral college are bulwarks against being ruled by the guillotine of democracy – a fact made clear by French history.Richard Sherman Margate, Florida, US Adrian Chiles might write of poetic expressions to describe players from West Bromwich Albion (Let’s not say ‘pip pip’ to our most poetic expressions!, 27 January), but that same team beat my own beloved Peterborough United 3-0 last Saturday, leading to much self-flagellation and chants of “We’re so shit it’s unbelievable”.Toby Wood Peterborough My husband says his mother kept a perpetual stockpot on the stove for leftovers. He was startled to see her adding old marmalade tarts on one occasion (Letters, 25 January).Maureen Bell Birmingham The most apt title for Jacob Rees-Mogg would be minister for the age of entitlement (Letters, 24 January).Ron Clarke Malvern, Worcestershire TopicsSexBrief lettersUS politicsWest Bromwich AlbionPeterboroughFoodJacob Rees-MogglettersReuse this content More

Republicans just wiped out a Democratic district. Here’s howThe Tennessee legislature’s splintering of Nashville is just one example of the gerrymandering taking place across the US Hello, and happy Thursday,On Tuesday afternoon, Jim Cooper, a moderate Democrat who has been in Congress for more than three decades, announced he was retiring. The timing was not a coincidence.Less than 24 hours earlier, the Tennessee legislature had approved a map with new boundaries for the state’s eight congressional districts. Since 2003, Cooper has represented a district that includes all of Nashville, and it has been reliably Democratic (Joe Biden carried it by 24 points in 2020). But the legislature’s new plan erased his district. Republicans sliced up Nashville into three different districts, attaching a sliver of Democratic voters in each to rural and deeply Republican areas. Donald Trump would have easily won all three of the new districts in 2020.Get the latest updates on voting rights in the Guardian’s Fight to vote newsletterCooper was blunt in his assessment of what had happened. Republicans, he said in a statement, had made it impossible for him to win re-election to Congress. Despite his best efforts, he said, he could not stop Republicans from “dismembering Nashville”.The map doesn’t just weaken the voice of Democrats, it also dilutes the influence of Black voters and other voters of color in Nashville. In Cooper’s current district, Black voters make up about a quarter of the voting-age population. They will comprise a much smaller share of the voting age population in the new districts, making it harder for them to make their voices heard.A masterclass in election-rigging: how Republicans ‘dismembered’ a Democratic strongholdRead moreAndrew Witherspoon, my colleague on our visuals team, and I put together an interactive map that shows exactly how Republicans transformed Cooper’s district. It’s one of the clearest examples of how politicians can essentially rig elections in their favor just by moving district lines. It underscores how gerrymandering is a remarkably powerful and efficient method of voter suppression – the influence of certain people’s votes matter less before a single ballot is even cast.Tennessee isn’t the only place this is happening. In Kansas, Republican lawmakers are advancing a plan that would similarly crack Kansas City, making it more difficult for the Democrat Sharice Davids, the first Native American woman elected to Congress, to get re-elected. In North Carolina, Republicans cracked the city of Greensboro in order to dismantle the state’s sixth congressional district, currently represented by a Democrat.Democrats have also shown a willingness to engage in this kind of distortion where they have control of the redistricting process, in places such as Illinois, Maryland and probably New York. Democrats will have complete control over drawing 75 congressional districts, compared with 187 for Republicans.The day before he announced his retirement, I spoke with Cooper about why he thought this was happening and what he thought the consequences would be for Nashville voters. What’s happening now is just “raw politics”, Cooper said.“In two previous redistricting cycles, none of the politicians in the state knew that I existed as a candidate. That made it easier – they weren’t trying to get Jim Cooper. And then in cycles where they did know I existed, it was either too difficult to rearrange the counties, or they were gentler,” he told me. Politico reported recently that after Republicans weren’t as aggressive as they could have been in states such as Texas and Georgia, there is some pressure to be even more aggressive in places like Tennessee.The Nashville constituents who are being sliced up into each of the three districts are likely to have much less importance to their new, Republican representatives, Cooper said. Any input they have, “at most, it will be tokenism”.“This is not a majority-minority community, but it will limit the ability for them to be heard. Because they’ll become essentially a rounding error in much larger districts that are dominated by the surrounding towns,” he said. “The center of gravity will shift.”Also worth watching …
A federal court told Alabama to redraw its congressional districts after finding Republican lawmakers had discriminated against Black voters. Alabama is appealing the ruling.
Arizona Republicans are proposing a suite of new voting restrictions after a widely criticized review of the 2020 election results.
Texas continues to face significant problems after implementing sweeping new voting restrictions ahead of its 1 March primary.
Ohio Republicans are redrawing state legislative and congressional maps after the state supreme court struck down earlier efforts as unconstitutional partisan gerrymanders. There are still concerns the new state legislative maps are severely gerrymandered.
TopicsUS voting rightsFight to voteNashvilleTennesseeRepublicansUS politicsDemocratsfeaturesReuse this content More

Liberals across America are sighing with relief about Justice Breyer’s retirementMoira DoneganThe 83-year-old US supreme court justice is stepping down – and allowing Biden to chose a successor before the midterms. Thank God for that That sound you hear is Democrats in Washington and across the country letting out a sigh of profound relief: Associate Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring in June, at the end of the US supreme court’s current term. News of the 83-year-old’s choice to step down broke on Wednesday – evidently a little earlier than the man himself would have liked – giving Joe Biden his first opportunity to fill a vacancy on the nation’s highest court.The decision from Breyer ends months of speculation and a determined pressure campaign to convince the ageing liberal justice to retire while Democrats still held both the White House and the Senate, that rare and precarious circumstance that is now required for any Democratic president to see his federal court nominees confirmed. Breyer’s decision to step down this summer gives the Democrats a narrow window to appoint his replacement before they are expected to lose control of the Senate in the November midterms.There is no doubt any more: the US supreme court is run by ‘partisan hacks’ | Robert ReichRead moreBreyer’s retirement, after nearly 30 years as a justice, will not change the balance of power on the supreme court, which has heaved dramatically rightward since Justice Anthony Kennedy chose to retire under Donald Trump in 2018. Nor will his exit mitigate what are likely to be ruinous outcomes in this term’s major rulings, which include the hateful Dobbs v Jackson, the case that is almost certain to overturn Roe v Wade. The benefits of his timely exit aren’t so much ameliorative as preventive: because he has retired under a Democratic trifecta, he has ensured that the supreme court’s conservative 6-3 supermajority will at least stay 6-3, and not become and insurmountable 7-2. But the extremist makeup of an increasingly maximalist rightwing court will continue.What his retirement does bring to an end is a long legal and political career of the kind that has since become unfeasible. Breyer’s early career was marked by the industrious bipartisanship of the latter 20th century, and he helped shape that era’s neoliberal consensus.When he was young, Breyer was a legal academic at Harvard – read any biography of a federal courts judge and the words “legal academic at Harvard” are likely to appear –and he wrote inventively about the prerogatives of executive agencies, a field known as administrative law. He favored deregulation, and took several leaves of absence from teaching throughout the 1970s to work as a special counsel to Democrats in the US Senate; among his accomplishments there was shepherding the deregulation of the airline industry.He gained a reputation for friendliness and a willingness to negotiate, and as this was in keeping with the social norms of Washington at the time, he was close with a number of Republicans. His children played with the children of the segregationist Republican senator Strom Thurmond. This closeness with men on the other side of the aisle paid off: when President Clinton nominated Breyer to the supreme court in 1994, he was confirmed 87 to 9.On the court itself, Breyer exerted his influence primarily in conference, attempting to extract compromises from his conservative colleagues and to cultivate their more moderate impulses. His colleagues on the left, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and later Sonia Sotomayor, took up the role first crafted by Thurgood Marshall, and wrote passionate dissents to conservative rulings that were meant to sway the public as much as the legal community. This was not Breyer’s style; he was nearly always speaking to other lawyers, not to lay people. We don’t know how much this worked – the justice’s conferences are confidential – but it is entirely possible that as the court shifted right over the course of his tenure, it was Breyer whose private arguments helped slow its lurch.But as the court and the nation became more polarized, Breyer had come to seem out of place. His commitment to persuasion was no match for a 6-3 court packed with conservative ideologues; his passionate belief in legislative power did not fit with the realities of a deadlocked and dysfunctional Congress that increasingly delegated policymaking power to the judiciary. His questions – always famous for their long-windedness and convoluted structure – devolved into meandering soliloquies, and on the audio broadcasts of the court’s oral arguments, his liberal colleagues Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor could often be heard trying to nudge him towards conclusion or clarify his point. It was obvious that he was from another time, and that time has now ended. The best thing he could have done for the country was go, and it is to his credit that he did.What comes next? On the campaign trail, candidate Biden promised to appoint a Black woman to the court, and the likeliest candidate is Ketanji Brown Jackson, a former Breyer clerk who has the justice’s blessing and whose promotion to the DC circuit court of appeals last June was seen as a stepping stone to succeed her former boss. She is 51, and could serve on the court for decades.But, if she is appointed, the institution that awaits Judge Brown Jackson is less collegial and less dignified than the one that welcomed Breyer. Despite the increasingly laughable protestations of its conservative wing, the supreme court has become an all but nakedly political body, frequently warping the law in bizarre and inventive ways to ensure outcomes that align with Republican priorities. They are going to dispose of abortion rights this year. Affirmative action is set to be dismantled. Voting rights have already been shockingly eroded, and the conservatives seem intent on interpreting religious freedom rights for Christians in whichever way can secure the maximum injury and indignity for everybody else.Increasingly, the impression left by the justices themselves is one of vain and petty figures, fixated on their own PR, attempting to maintain the solemn mystique of an institution that has long since lost it. Who would want to join such a workplace? Perhaps Judge Brown Jackson, if she does indeed become the nominee, deserves not only our congratulations, but also our condolences.
Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
TopicsUS supreme courtOpinionUS politicscommentReuse this content More