The calls to step down come from both the left and center—amplified by law professors, scholarly legal journals, and anti-Trump pundits—warning about the risks to the Supreme Court and the country if Justice Sonia Sotomayor isn’t replaced while there’s still a Democrat in the White House and a Senate in Democratic hands.

She’s only 69, young by today’s standards, but the memory is still fresh of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lingering well into her 80s and then dying weeks before the 2016 election, opening the door for three Trump-appointed judges to complete the conservative super majority to overturn Roe.

Sotomayor now faces the same decision that RBG faced: Permit a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate to confirm a successor who will hold the seat for decades—or roll the dice. RBG rolled the dice, and we all lost.

For Sotomayor, the decision is even more stark than it was for RBG—precisely because she knows how RBG’s tragedy played out.

Sotomayor was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes when she was just seven years old, and the Huffington Post earlier this year reported the justice requested that a medic accompany her on several recent trips. Several years ago, in 2018, Reuters reported that paramedics were called to Sotomayor’s home to revive her when her blood sugar fell.

These are challenges for someone with lifelong diabetes, but they are not disqualifying.

Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan on September 30, 2022.

To publicly........

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