"Liberals against retirement
"For conservative Supreme Court justices, 80 is effectively retirement age.
"After Anthony Kennedy turned 80, he stepped down at the first convenient moment — in 2018, when a Republican was in the White House and the court wasn’t already welcoming a first-year justice. Warren Burger and Lewis Powell both retired at 79, during Ronald Reagan’s second term. Sandra Day O’Connor left the court at 75, during George W. Bush’s presidency.
"To put the pattern in its starkest terms, no modern conservative justice has forfeited the chance to be replaced by a Republican president after turning 80. That’s part of the reason that Democratic presidents have so rarely had the chance to flip a court seat: The conservative justices try not to let it happen.
"Several liberal justices have taken a different approach. John Paul Stevens could have retired at age 80 during Bill Clinton’s presidency but did not. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, having been diagnosed with cancer, could have retired at 81 during Barack Obama’s presidency but did not. And Stephen Breyer, now 82, could have announced his retirement this summer, with Joe Biden in the White House and the Democrats narrowly controlling the Senate, but Breyer has not.
"There is no one explanation for the pattern. It involves so few people that it may partly be a coincidence. Whatever the reasons, though, it has huge consequences for the country." [ed. note: from NYT The Morning]
- "As a result, the Soviets crushed countries that didn’t invest in female athletes. And if the West wanted to challenge the Eastern bloc in the medal race, they were going to have to find a way around those pesky amateurism rules, short of providing women with scholarships and other kinds of material support. For American women, the answer was simple: Use child athletes."
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