Minority report: How justices from Harlan to Breyer shaped legal opinion
With Justice Stephen Breyer announcing his retirement Thursday, his replacement will follow in the footsteps of every justice before them by taking their place on the lowest rung of the highest court in the land.
This new justice – early favorites include federal appellate Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, U.S. District Judge J. Michelle Childs, and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger – will join a court where they will have even less influence than most, at least when it comes to shaping the law.
The Supreme Court has had a conservative lean for almost 50 years, but it’s now perhaps the most conservative it’s been since the 1930s. Six Republican-appointed justices sit on the court, and three of them are in their 50s.
