Top officials at conservative judicial groups said they viewed the current landscape as less than conducive to a successful bare-knuckled confirmation fight. A Breyer retirement was long expected, Republicans do not control the Senate and, most importantly, a new justice would not shift the court’s ideological balance, let alone its majority.

“The stakes just aren’t quite as urgent — the left or the right” compared to the fight to replace the late Justice Ginsburg, said Josh Blackman, a law professor and a legal expert with the conservative Federalist Society and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. “This just seems more of a — it’s how many political points you can score.”…

“I think it’s an even trade. What we can hope for is that the president will appoint a thoughtful moderate and someone who is a real constitutionalist and will look at the case in front of them,” said Penny Nance, the president and CEO of conservative group Concerned Women for America. “We’re going to wait and see who the president puts forward but we’re not going to ignore it or dial it in. We’re going to be active in it.”