Dem
47
GOP
53
Various people, ourselves included, have thrown out the idea of Justice Sonia Sotomayor resigning from the Supreme Court so she can be replaced before Jan. 3. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) has said: "Whoever makes those calls [for a retirement] can't count." He didn't mean "can't count votes." He meant "can't count days."
The problem is that the lame-duck session of the Senate has to deal with the budget and defense authorization bills, so there isn't enough time left for a lot of other business. The Democrats are planning to ram through a number of judges, but Republicans won't go to the mattresses to delay these as they would for a Supreme Court nomination. If Sotomayor were to resign now, it is possible that the Democrats wouldn't be able to get her replacement through before Jan. 3, allowing Donald Trump to nominate someone else that the new Republican Senate would quickly confirm. Basically, it is too late.
Oh, and one minor detail: Sotomayor has said she has no intention of resigning, just as Ruth Bader Ginsburg didn't. If she wanted to resign, she could have done it in June, but she likes her job and plans on living forever. (V)