Dems push for Sonia Sotomayor to retire so Joe Biden can appoint a replacement—some suggest Kamala

It was on Election Night, after a Trump victory became apparent, the calls for her retirement began. "Sotomayor should retire tomorrow and let the lame duck Senate confirm her replacement," said Miranda Yaver, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh.

"This would probably be a good day for Sotomayor to retire," said editor of The American Prospect David Dayen the day after Election Day.

Other reports show that Democrats are divided on whether they should pressure her to retire. In July, Biden was pressured to "pass the torch" to his vice president and let her have a run for president. That failed spectacularly on Tuesday when Trump swept the battleground states, gaining the popular vote, the Electoral College, and won back the Senate for the GOP.

Politico said "this is a hair-on-fire moment" for Democrats and the talk of pressuring Sotomayor to retire "isn’t simply some flight of fancy happening among progressive activists online. It’s a conversation members of the Senate are actively engaged in." They suggest that Michelle Childs, a DC Circuit judge who was already on Biden's short list, could be under consideration.

The calls for Sotomayor to retire come after articles and comments from earlier this year when other left-leaning pundits and commentators have suggested the same thing. What's new this time around, however, are those who are suggesting that not only should Sotomayor retire, but that Biden should appoint Harris.

"You have a hell of a vice president right there who has a legal pedigree, to sit on the Supreme Court and let Republicans go crazy," said Bakari Sellers on CNN.

Sotomayor, a Barack Obama appointment in 2009, is 70 years old and the oldest justice. The Supreme Court skews conservative with a 6-3 majority and Sotomayor is one of only three Democrat justices serving, alongside Elena Kagan and Biden appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Biden selected Jackson in much the same way he selected his vice president, based on race and gender.

A new appointee would have to be confirmed by the Senate, which will only be a Democrat majority until the end of Biden's term. The Tuesday election flipped the Senate to Republican control, which will take effect with the new term. In the last year of his term, Obama attempted to appoint a Supreme Court Justice to replace the late Antonin Scalia. He appointed Merrick Garland in March 2016, but the then-Republican-led Senate under current Minority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to move forward with the confirmation, instead banking on a GOP victory during that election season.

After Trump was elected in 2016, he appointed Neil Gorsuch to replace Scalia, who was confirmed by the Senate. He also was able to appoint Brett Kavanaugh, who took his seat on the bench after extremely contentious confirmation hearings, as well as Amy Coney Barrett. Those three joined the three conservative justices already on the bench, Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, and John Roberts and Samuel Alito, both George W. Bush appointees.

Garland, who had been snubbed by the Senate GOP, was later made the attorney general under Joe Biden.