Will Stephen Breyer retire this summer?

[Skill and Chance]

Has Sotomayor hired a full slate of clerks yet? She'd been delaying doing so and I sort of suspect she is likelier to retire this summer.

Yes, I think it's going to be Sotomayor and then Breyer, much like it was Souter before Stevens under Obama. 

[Skill and Chance]

Has Sotomayor hired a full slate of clerks yet? She'd been delaying doing so and I sort of suspect she is likelier to retire this summer.

Yes, I think it's going to be Sotomayor and then Breyer, much like it was Souter before Stevens under Obama. 

Not sure. She's only turning 67 this year and 12 years on the bench.

I just wish Thomas would retire. Would also be ironic for Biden to select his replacement after Anita Hill.

Sotomayor has more health issues than average for her age and is one of the most explicitly partisan justices overall, the most partisan on the left by a mile (Alito and Thomas are the competition).   

[Skill and Chance]

Honestly, of all of the current justices, I'd bet on Roberts being the next to retire.

He just seems fed up with trying maintain the peace on the court.

I actually wouldn't rule out the possibility of Roberts retiring under a Democratic President. I remember when the left feared the possibility of a Chief Justice Scalia. That wasn't really a realistic scenario. Justice Scalia really did not have the temperament to make a good Chief Justice.

As for Justice Breyer, maybe Bill Clinton needs to talk to him as to the severity of the current crisis in our democracy. A 7-2 conservative majority would be unstoppable.

I agree Roberts hanging it up soon is a very underrated possibility.  If it happened within the next 2 years, I guess we would get Chief Justice Kagan?  Also worth noting that a Roberts retirement, even under Biden, would probably push jurisprudence to the right.  Roberts has been leaning on Kavanaugh (and occasionally even Barrett) with some success.  If he's gone and the new CJ is a liberal who is going to dissent anyway, it will be Thomas and Alito leaning on Kav going forward. 

[Skill and Chance]

I think the odds just went up significantly after he got to write the Obamacare decision.