Calls for Sonia Sotomayor to Retire Intensify Following Trump’s Presidential Win

Following the recent presidential election, some prominent voices on the left have renewed their calls for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire before the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January. This push is driven by concerns that if Sotomayor were to step down after Trump takes office, the Republican president would have the opportunity to appoint her successor, potentially shifting the ideological balance of the Supreme Court further to the right.

The calls for Sotomayor’s retirement are not new; they began earlier this year when liberals urged her to retire while President Joe Biden was still in office, allowing him to nominate and potentially confirm a more liberal justice. However, with Trump’s victory, the urgency of this issue has increased among Democrats, who are aware that confirming a new justice under a Republican administration would be highly challenging.

Meanwhile, Justice Sotomayor has been actively involved in recent Supreme Court proceedings. On November 7, 2024, she participated in the hearing of *Facebook v. Amalgamated Bank*, a case that involves Facebook’s disclosures to investors regarding the 2015 Cambridge Analytica data breach. During the arguments, Sotomayor, along with other justices, expressed skepticism about Facebook’s handling of the disclosures, comparing them to a homeowner downplaying recent burglaries in the neighborhood.

The outcome of the *Facebook v. Amalgamated Bank* case and the future of the Supreme Court’s composition remain uncertain, but the current political landscape has heightened the focus on the potential retirements of older justices, including Sotomayor.