U.S. Supreme Court's Breyer will officially retire on Thursday

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-courts-breyer-will-officially-retire-thursday-2022-06-29/

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) - Liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will officially retire on Thursday, paving the way for President Joe Biden's appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson to be sworn in to the lifetime position to replace him, the court said on Wednesday.

Jackson, 51, is set to become the first Black woman to serve on the nation's top judicial body after being confirmed by the Senate on on April 7. Breyer, 83, has served on the court since 1994 and announced his plans to retire in January. He will retire at noon (1600 GMT) on Thursday shortly after the court issues the last of its rulings of its current term.

"It has been my great honor to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the Rule of Law," Breyer said in a letter to Biden.

Breyer, the court's oldest justice, often found himself in dissent on a court that has moved ever rightward, including last Friday when its conservative majority overturned the constitutional right to abortion recognized in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

Breyer also dissented in another major ruling last week when the court's conservatives endorsed for the first time a right under the U.S. Constitution to carry a handgun in public.

Jackson's confirmation by the Senate marked a victory for Biden, who has sought to infuse the federal judiciary with a broader range of backgrounds.

Stephen Breyer

Stephen Gerald Breyer is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1994. He was nominated by President Bill Clinton, and replaced retiring justice Harry Blackmun. Breyer is generally associated with the liberal wing of the Court.