Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor exchanged inaudible pleasantries and chuckles with her conservative colleagues as she walked up the short steps to the dais where the court's mahogany bench is. A 70-year-old with diabetes, Sotomayor is now facing new calls from progressives to retire in the final days of President Joe Biden's term in office.

President-elect Donald Trump's election victory, combined with the Republican takeover of the Senate, may extend conservative control of the Supreme Court for another two decades. For much of the last four years,