In an effort to prevent a repeat of the scenario that unfolded after the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, a growing number of commentators on the left are hoping that another current liberal jurist will retire sooner rather than later.

Though some might suggest that the current rumblings urging Justice Sonia Sotomayor to consider stepping down are misogynistic and unfair, Arwa Mahdawi writes for the Guardian that they are actually borne out of a shrewd strategy designed to protect the court from an even larger conservative majority.

Retirement campaign emerges

Mahdawi begins her op-ed by noting the emergence of a number of calls from progressive observers suggesting that now is the time for Sotomayor to depart the court.

The idea, according to those voices, is that the liberal justice should step down while a Democratic president would be able to nominate her successor.

This concept has been furthered by Josh Barrow in the Atlantic, Medhi Hassan in the Guardian, and law professor Paul Campos during an appearance on CNN.

Earlier this year, Ian Millhiser of Vox wrote that perhaps both Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan should consider leaving the court now to facilitate the selection of liberal replacements.

Referencing Ginsburg's refusal to retire during then-President Barack Obama's tenure and the subsequent choice of her successor by former President Donald Trump, Millhiser declared, “We have now lived with the consequences of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's late-life arrogance for more than two years.”

Pushback arises

However, as calls for Sotomayor's resignation began to take hold, a number of Democrats have pushed back, suggesting that the notion is inappropriate and unwise, as The Hill noted.

Senate Judiciary Committee member Peter Welch (D-VT) observed, “She's not 70. I might remind some of my colleagues to look around, check their birth certificate. She's going full speed ahead. I'm not aware of significant issues, and I'm aware of extraordinary competence. This is not an RBG situation.”

As Mahdawi notes, pundits on the left have raised concerns that the very idea that Sotomayor should resign is sexist and wrong, with Dahlia Lithwick writing for Slate that “virtually every prominent person pushing [the argument] is male. And the people defending her are female.”

Pragmatism, not misogyny

Mahdawi, for her part, cautions her ideological brothers and sisters to avoid falling into what she views as a trap, saying, “Please, I'm begging everyone, let's not have this ridiculous debate again. We had this exact same conversation last year, you may recall, in relation to the late Dianne Feinstein.”

“Do women in positions of high power frequently get judged by higher standards than their male peers? Yes, of course they do,” she writes. “But criticizing a woman is not, it goes without saying, automatically sexist.”

She also pointed out that former Justice Stephen Breyer was also the subject of a resignation pressure campaign in 2022, to which he eventually acquiesced, allowing Biden to appoint current liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the bench.

“Let me [be] clear: none of this is meant as a slight to Sotomayor,” Mahdawi emphasized, characterizing the justice as “the conscience of the Supreme Court,” but whether the campaign to force the liberal jurist off the bench in time for a Biden-tapped appointment to get off the ground will succeed, only time will tell.