Biden pledges to name progressives to the Supreme Court, suggesting he expects vacancies

CNN —

President Joe Biden promised Black voters Wednesday that he would appoint progressives to the US Supreme Court if elected to a second term, suggesting he expects vacancies on the high court over the next four years.

“The next president, they’re going to be able to appoint a couple justices, and I’ll be damned — if in fact we’re able to change some of the justices when they retire and put in really progressive judges like we’ve always had, tell me that won’t change your life,” he said during a campaign rally in Philadelphia.

It was as explicit a warning as Biden could offer about the stakes of the upcoming election, and a clear reminder that some of the nine justices have entered their seventies.

Clarence Thomas is 75 and Samuel Alito is 74; both are conservative and appointed by Republican presidents. Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal who was nominated by President Barack Obama, turns 70 next month.

Retirements of any or all of those justices could provide a key opportunity for either Biden, who has named one justice to the Supreme Court, or his Republican rival Donald Trump, who named three during his four-year term.

In this December 2019 photo, Judge David Tatel, center, listens to arguments as local high school students observe a reenactment of a landmark Supreme court case at the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC.

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The ideological makeup of the court has emerged as one of the defining facets of American political power. The current conservative majority — made possible by Trump’s three appointments — overturned in 2022 the nationwide right to abortion enshrined in Roe v.