Distractions seem to abound as the Supreme Court convened Monday amid a federal government shutdown and a plethora of requests from conservative groups to reverse prior decisions — bold action in an institution that relies on the power of precedent.

There’s another distraction as well, outlined in detail in a Washington Post story published the day before, contemplating the retirement of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

At age 80, the diminutive Ginsburg remains healthy and still burns with a passion for the law, but a growing political sentiment suggests she get out of the way in order to allow President Barack Obama the opportunity to appoint her successor.

Ginsburg, who was nominated to the court by President Bill Clinton, is the eldest of four consistently liberal justices on the court; there are four conservative justices, with Anthony M. Kennedy, a right-leaning appointee of President Ronald Reagan, often casting the deciding vote on issues before the court.

In an ideal world, Supreme Court justices would be immune to politics; they also would serve forever. But Washington, D.C., is far from perfect, judges don’t live forever and political pressure remains omnipresent.

Ginsburg is well aware of politics; in the Washington Post article, she discusses how she was nominated by Clinton only after her late husband, prominent tax attorney Martin N. Ginsburg, organized an aggressive letter-writing campaign drawing attention to the 13-year veteran judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

She became the first Supreme Court nominee from a Democratic president in 26 years.

Ginsburg has some time to consider retirement before the 2016 presidential election. She also might want to consider that if the court’s membership doesn’t change before then, the next president — whether Republican or Democrat — will have a Supreme Court with four of its nine members older than 77, and the prospect of naming replacements for all four.

Needless to say, a president of any political persuasion could upset the delicate balance of the Supreme Court with four nominations. And while Ginsburg suggested she likes the chances for another Democrat to follow Obama in the White House, there’s no guarantee it won’t be a Republican.

Whatever Justice Bader Ginsburg decides, Americans should be aware of the mounting pressure on her to retire and make way for an Obama-nominated successor. Her circumstance illustrates the uneasy overlap of interests between politics and justice in a world where, ideally, they remain separate.