You May Be Seated

The sweeping headline that a Supreme Court Justice was to retire gave me a rare moment of fleeting elation. “Finally,” I thought, “Biden can get a W on the board.” This was met with the unfortunate realization that the ideological imbalance of the Court would remain unchanged, as Justice Stephen G. Breyer, it turns out, was already One of the Good Ones.

If the Supreme Court was a living room and its Justices the furniture, it seems we are essentially replacing an old Eames chair with a newer, younger Eames chair that should last us another good thirty-plus years. Amongst the many unflattering BarcaLoungers, the new addition is sure to shine bright.

I can only wish that when she arrives, she gets as comfortable as Justice Breyer got in his retirement speech at the White House, when he leaned on the podium, ad-libbed, and forgot to thank his wife who was sitting right freaking there. He is lucky if she doesn’t ask for his resignation from that lifetime appointment.