President Biden is picking the new Supreme Court Justice to replace Steven Breyer, who is retiring soon and is to step down at the end of his current term.

After serving as a Supreme Court Justice for almost 30 years, Justice Breyer made the choice to retire. At 83, he is also the oldest Supreme Court Justice. He was nominated in 1994 by then-President Bill Clinton. Biden reportedly is planning to picking a black woman to replace Breyer in hopes of making the Supreme Court more diverse.

The reason behind Breyer’s retirement is reportedly political. Currently, the Supreme Court is made up of six Republicans and three Democrats. The three newest Republican Supreme Court Justices were chosen by former President Donald Trump. One of the three Supreme Court Justices is Amy Coney Barrett, who replaced Ruth Bader Ginsburg. During Obama’s presidency, it was suggested that Ginsburg step down from the Supreme Court due to health problems. Some say that because Ginsburg waited “too long” to retire, she was resultantly replaced by Barrett, who holds more right-wing ideals. This situation is quite similar to that of Breyer. Breyer was urged to retire in order to avoid a situation similar to that of Ginsburg. If Breyer waited any longer to retire, he would have risked a chance of being replaced by a Republican, further adding to the disadvantage of the Democrats in the Supreme Court. Now is the best time for him to retire because of the midterm elections in November and because the Democrats currently hold the positions of both the White House and Senate.

The political parties and beliefs of a Supreme Court Justice are important because Supreme Court Justices have a very vital job. It is a life-long position in which they argue major court cases that can alter the laws in the United States. The Supreme Court Justices are not supposed to have a political bias and are not to interpret the law in their favor. However, in this day and age in such a politically divided country, this is nearly impossible. So, if a majority of the Supreme Court Justices share the same opinion, upcoming laws could be turned in their favor. The choosing of a Supreme Court Justice, therefore, is no simple job. A Supreme Court Justice is selected by the president with the approval of the Senate. The make-up of the Senate is equal amongst Democrats and Republicans, and, as written in the constitution, the vice president is the president of the Senate. This means that Kamala Harris, who is a Democrat, may swing the anticipated tie, voting in favor of the new Supreme Court Justice.

The new Supreme Court Justice will start her term on October 3rd, 2022, and the potential nominees are Ketanji Brown Jackson, Leondra Kruger, J. Michelle Childs, and Sherrilyn Ifill. “The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience, and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court,” Biden said. “It’s long overdue in my view. I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment.”

This is a revolutionary step towards diversifying the Supreme Court, as it has only had six of 115 total Supreme Court Justices that were not white men.