Justice Sotomayor’s health isn’t the real problem for Democrats − winning elections is

Winning on Election Day is the best path for any political party to remake the Supreme Court. Photo by Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images by Kevin J. McMahon, Trinity College It almost sounds like a bad joke: What did the 78-year-old male senator say to the 69-year-old female justice? “RETIRE!” That’s effectively what happened recently when U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut suggested that Sonia Sotomayor – the first Hispanic and third woman Supreme Court justice – retire so that President Joe Biden could appoint a younger and presumably healthier replacement. Blumenthal is not alone. Fearing a repeat of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death in September 2020 — just weeks before Election Day — progressives such as Josh Barro, Mehdi Hasan and Nate Silver want to ensure that if Donald Trump does defeat Biden in November, he would not have another opportunity to replace a departed liberal justice with a young conservative ideologue. If Sotomayor is indeed ill, she could justifiably choose to retire. But such calls are not clear-eyed assessments of the justice’s health. Blumenthal and the progressive columnists calling for Sotomayor’s retirement aren’t medical doctors who have reviewed the justice’s records. Instead, in my view as a political...