“Justice Stephen Breyer, a devoted pragmatist and the senior member of the Supreme Court’s liberal wing, will retire from the court at the end of the 2021-22 term… His retirement opens the door for President Joe Biden to fulfill a campaign promise and nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.” (SCOTUSblog)

The left praises Breyer’s record, and calls on Biden to honor his pledge to nominate a Black woman.

The right is generally critical of Breyer’s record, and criticizes Biden’s pledge to nominate a black woman.

Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) announced Tuesday that she will not run for reelection, in the 25th retirement by a House Democrat as the party faces tough odds in the midterm elections.

Lawrence, 67, is a four-term member of Congress and serves as vice-chair of the House Appropriations Committee. She has spent three decades in public service. In 2001, she became the first woman and African American to win election as mayor of Southfield, Mich.

Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, the longtime Civil Rights activist first elected to Congress in 1992, won't seek reelection in November, he told POLITICO on Monday.

Rush, a legend in Chicago politics dating back to the 1960s when he co-founded the Illinois Black Panther Party, joins a wave of House lawmakers leaving public office.

Just don't call it a retirement.

“First of all, I'm not retiring man, alright?" he said in an interview. "I am not ready to go off to some spot in the sun, sit on nobody's beach drinking tequila."

Just this week, three House Democrats announced they won't seek reelection in 2022: New Jersey's Albio Sires, Florida's Stephanie Murphy and California's Lucille Roybal-Allard. That makes 23 House Democrats who have announced they're retiring or running for another office next year, as the party braces for the possible loss of its already slim majority in the House in next year's midterm elections. 

Just a few hours after we published this article, Democratic Rep. Alan Lowenthal of California announced his retirement from the House.

With the end-of-the-year holiday break fast approaching, the announcements came quickly.

A trio of Democrats in the House of Representatives – Reps. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Lucille Roybal-Allard of California, and Albio Sires of New Jersey – last week said that they’ll retire at the end of next year rather than run in the 2022 midterm elections for another term in Congress.

California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier announced that she will not seek reelection in 2022, adding to a Democratic exodus that is expected to grow as members expect Republicans to win control of the House next year.

“Today, I am announcing that I will not be a candidate for reelection to Congress in 2022,” Speier said in a video posted to Twitter. “It’s time for me to come home, time for me to be more than a weekend wife, mother, and friend.

The Covid-19 pandemic has boosted retirements among baby boomers, further straining the tight labor supply and leaving a hole for employers to fill.

Older workers who could least afford to retire early—those with lower incomes and less education—have been more likely to leave the workforce during the pandemic, researchers have found. The question is whether their retreat is temporary or permanent. Some retired because of Covid-19 fears, and others after failing to find suitable work.

For many Americans, one result of the pandemic is a changing calculus for retirement. Some boomers are exiting careers sooner than they expected – yet other workers face a tougher climb to be financially ready.

When she turned 65, Wendy Northcross knew she wasn’t ready to retire. When the coronavirus hit a year later, she told the board of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce that she’d stay on as CEO until the pandemic was over.

Then came the 20-hour workdays as local business owners flooded in, looking for ways to stave off bankruptcy.

Ceci Dominguez celebrated her 67th birthday alone in her home in the Elysian Valley neighborhood of Los Angeles. The threat of coronavirus kept her from friends and family—and from the part-time jobs and informal gigs that keep her frugal budget balanced.