A political science professor at the University of North Georgia said it's not surprising that Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring now since the balance of power in the Senate could change in the upcoming midterm elections.
Breyer, a liberal justice, is retiring after serving more than 20 years on the nation's highest court. The official announcement is expected at the White House on Thursday.
Nathan Price says the retirement now give President Biden the opportunity to appoint another liberal justice before the midterm elections, when often the party that controls the White House loses seats in Congress. If Republicans gain just one Senate seat, they will control the upper chamber starting in January.
"When you control the Senate, you control the timeline," Price said. "And I think this is plenty early for Democrats to get this done before the midterms."
The 2022 general election will be the fourth straight that has included a fight over a Supreme Court vacancy. In 2016, Republican, who controlled the Senate, refused to even hold hearings for Merritt Garland, President Obama's nominee. In 2018 and 2020, hearings from Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's appointees were among the most contentious in years. Republicans even changed the rules of the Senate so only 50 votes – not 60 – were required for confirmation.
But Price is not certain this appointment will produce such rancor. He said with the court currently split six conservative judges to three liberal ones, the appointment of one liberal judge for another is not likely to cause division.
"The outcome doesn't fundamentally alter the balance of the court," he said.
Price also believes that Biden's promise to name the first black woman to the court may make some moderate conservatives unwilling to vote against an historic nominee, even if there are differences in judicial philosophy.
"I think some Republicans will want to avoid the optics of going too hard against an historic nominee in a midterm year that could turn off some voters," Price said.
Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski might be willing to support Biden's nominee, depending on who it is, Price said.
"It's certainly possible," he said. "And wait to see the nominee, but I think there's a very good potential that a nominee could get 52, 52, 53 votes."
In recent week, infighting among Democrats has stalled two major pieces of legislation from the president – the voting rights bills and the Build Back Better bill. Sens. Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin have held up both bills. While they approve of the legislation itself, both oppose changing longstanding Senate rules about the filibuster just to get the bills passed.
Price said he expects both to support Biden's Supreme Court nominee, especially Manchin, who has a strong record of backing Obama's judicial nominees.
"I doubt that he would be willing to block a nomination, particularly what could be an historic nomination of the first African-American woman to serve on the Supreme Court," he said.
