Judging Things by Different Standards

There's a lotta calls for Sotomayor to retire so that Biden can appoint a replacement. Call it post-RBG syndrome. There's been some pushback suggesting that this is racist and sexist - demanding that the only ever Latina SCOTUS justice step down. Also there's backlash from institutional power defending folks who reflexively believe that any criticism of powerful people is the same as violent terrorism.

I'm anti-authority (I know - shocking admission) - but I have to agree with the Sotomayor defenders. It's racist and sexist.

Justice Sotomayor is 69. This isn't young, but it's way lower than the age that the rumbling for retirement gets trotted out for non-Latinas. For example:

RBG herself, did not face pushes for retirement until Obama's second term. So the early calls for RBG to retire - which were vehemently opposed I'd like to note - did not start until 2012 at the earliest, when RBG was 79. Two and a half presidential terms older than Sotomayor is now.

The calls for Stephen Breyer to retire only began in 2021, after Joe took the oath in the wake of a literal attempted insurrection. He would have been 81. Meaning that during Obama's second term, he would have been 73 to 78 - and no one said shit.

I have disagreements with all of the SCOTUS justices, but I find that Sotomayor is the least likely to do shit that pisses me off.  And based on the weird index they created for this, Sonia Sotomayor is indeed the most Liberal justice on SCOTUS - and by a significant margin.  More liberal than RBG. In fact, among the most liberal justices that SCOTUS has ever had with only two previous justices that have rated as more so.

Look, I acknowledge that losing her and having a GOP asshole like Trump picking her replacement, that would be super bad. But the standard being used here is bullshit. If you feel bad for not supporting calls for RBG to retire when she was in her 80s - that's a you problem. Stop using that to attack a woman a full decade younger than what you felt was okay for a non-Latina.

EDIT: Also, these concerns are obviously only Democratic and liberal concerns. Thomas and Alito are both older than Sotomayor - but the thing which hammers home how bullshit the double standards is - Chief Justice John Roberts is a whole seven months younger than Sotomayor.