Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer plans to retire, paving the way for Biden pick

Washington — Justice Stephen Breyer, the senior member of the Supreme Court's liberal wing, plans to retire after nearly 28 years on the bench, giving President Biden the opportunity to make his first appointment to the nation's highest court, one that is poised to be historic.

Two sources confirmed Breyer's intention to step down to CBS News. The move comes after a months-long campaign from progressives that began after Mr. Biden assumed office urging him to retire and allow the president to name a successor while Democrats hold a slim, and fragile, majority in the Senate. While his retirement will not alter the ideological makeup of the Supreme Court, as Breyer is likely to be replaced by a fellow liberal jurist, it does position Mr. Biden to name a new justice who can serve for decades if confirmed by the Senate.

The president has repeatedly vowed that if a vacancy on the high court were to arise during his presidency, he would name the Supreme Court's first Black woman justice. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, tapped by Mr. Biden to the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, is considered to be a top contender for the Supreme Court. Jackson, who was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in June, clerked for Breyer.