Calls for justice to quit face pushback

U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez is pushing back on calls for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to resign soon to give President Joe Biden the chance to appoint a liberal replacement.

The outspoken senior New York lawmaker says fellow Democrats should allow the trailblazing 69-year-old jurist to make her own decision about when to step down from the nation’s top court.

“Forcing the only Latina on the Court to retire isn’t going to get us a liberal majority back,” Velazquez tweeted late Thursday.

Velazquez, 70 — the dean of the Puerto Rican caucus known affectionately as “la luchadora,” or the fighter — was responding to remarks by Sen. Richard Blumenthal suggesting Sotomayor should consider stepping aside given her age and less-than-robust health.

There are only three liberal judges on the nine-member court.

Blumenthal — a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which handles Supreme Court appointments — said he has “great admiration” for the Bronx-born Sotomayor, but everyone should consider whether it’s time to retire.

“We should learn a lesson. And it’s not like there’s any mystery here about what the lesson should be,” said Blumenthal, 78. “The old saying: Graveyards are full of indispensable people.”

Blumenthal worries that Sotomayor, who suffers from diabetes, might be forced to leave office by ill health or death during the next president’s term.