Liberal US Supreme Court judge Stephen Breyer is expected to announce his retirement on Thursday, paving the way for president Joe Biden to shape the court for the first time and fulfil his campaign promise of nominating a Black woman to the country’s highest federal court.
Mr Breyer, 83, is the oldest judge in the Supreme Court and is one of the three Democrat appointees to the court. The other two are Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. The six Republican appointees, who hold the majority in the court, include John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
