Breyer, Kagan, and the fading of 20th-century American Jewish meritocracy

The latest SCOTUS exit symbolizes the declining prominence of a certain kind of American Jew

The Supreme Court.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

Justice Steven Breyer's retirement from the Supreme Court is a perfect Washington story: It's fascinating to the small number of people who follow politics closely and makes little difference to anyone else.

Breyer, who was nominated by a Democratic president, will be replaced by another justice nominated by a Democratic president, who in turn will be a reliable vote for liberal positions on most issues (perhaps with a few signature idiosyncrasies). Unless you're a devoted court watcher, there's not much to see here.

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Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also an associate professor of political science at George Washington University, where he is executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard and was a postdoctoral fellow in Religion, Ethics, & Politics at Princeton University. His books include God's Country: Christian Zionism in America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) and After Nationalism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). In addition to academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications.