Sonia Sotomayor Staying on Supreme Court Poses 'Risk,' Law Professor Warns

Law professor Paul Campos warned on Saturday that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor remaining on the bench poses a "risk" amid the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

Sotomayor who was born in the Bronx, New York, is the first Latina and the third woman to serve on the Supreme Court. At 69 years old, Sotomayor is the oldest justice to have been picked by a Democrat as she was appointed by then-President Barack Obama in 2009. However, with Sotomayor being one of three liberal justices on the nine-person Court, a recent push for her to retire has emerged amid the 2024 election in which former President Donald Trump and incumbent President Joe Biden will face off as both men each won a series of primary elections to become their party's presumptive presidential nominees.

In a Saturday interview on CNN's Smerconish, Campos, a law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, discussed the recent push for Sotomayor to retire, adding that the window may be closing for the Democratic Party.

"I think Sonia Sotomayor is a great Supreme Court justice, but I definitely think she ought to announce that she is stepping down from the Court this summer because the fact is that...there is a very significant possibility that Joe Biden will not be able to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court during his second term because of Republican control of the Senate. There's also a significant possibility that Donald Trump will be able to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court if he were to be reelected president and the GOP controls the Senate," Campos said.