That is correct. If the Senate had (good faith) hearings for Garland in 2016 that led to him being confirmed, there would be no outrage right now. The fact that they held that seat open for 8+ months then but are making the exact opposite argument to fill a seat in under 2 months now is what’s causing the bulk of the rightfully placed anger.
4 Likes
It’s not normal for the highest court to be either so politicised or to have such a fundamental role in the practical content of laws. A politically controversial ruling happened recently in the UK, but that was more or less a first.
Here in France the last constitutional court ruling I remember essentially said ‘afraid we have to get rid of this law, but you should probably just change the Constitution’, and the Constitution is changed fairly regularly.
(Edit - addressing why not knowing court justices is rife around the world.)
1 Like
Honestly, Don Jr. is who we deserve as a country.
1 Like
Yeah, I think it was on 5-4 that they made the point that the Republicans have just outsourced legislating all their terrible policy positions to the Supreme Court.
Right. The President can nominate someone and the Senate can hold hearings and vote to confirm. But the Republicans fucked that all up four years ago and are now all flipping the public opinions they expressed back then, purely for political power.
The problem as I see it is that from now on, a Democratic president will never be able to install a new Justice if the Republicans control the Senate. Ever. Even if it’s not an election year. The Republicans simply won’t let it happen.
2 Likes
I don’t think they can really get away with this. If a justice retires or dies on day one of the Biden administration they’ll have to hold hearings that at least seem good faith and hold a vote. I think it’s likely Republicans vote down anyone too left or young but would confirm someone old and centrist like Garland.
Counterpoint: no
7 Likes
You don’t think they would even hold hearings or have a vote?
After the Garland gambit worked, I’m not sure what would ever compel a GOP Senate to hold hearings or have a vote under a democratic president.
5 Likes
I think that sort of naked obstructionism wouldn’t sit well with voters. There couldn’t even be a pretext like there was with Garland if it happened in the first couple of years of the term.
They’ve never been punished for naked obstructionism.
11 Likes
It wouldn’t sit well with voters, but they’d still tick the Republican box every goddamn election.
2 Likes
While I agree with the sentiment there’s clearly a difference between blocking one person and completely reforming it. It’s weird the difference between people not liking change and gravitating toward the change political candidate at the same time.
he’s so dumb not to realize california or NY even can easily be broken into a D and R state instead of trying to figure out how to not fuck that up for texas/florida.
1 Like
100% agree with dlk9s that Republicans will never seat a Dem Justice. All the empirical evidence of the past 4 years backs this up. You think public opinion is going to stop them? They passed a tax bill that was like 50 points underwater in public opinion. They are currently breaking their word on a very clear precedent that they just set. Like, the head of the judiciary committee literally said, “you can hold the tape”, and now he’s justifying it with things that happened before he said that.
That’s way harder to defend that whatever excuse they will come up with next time, e.g. “well we just got the Senate back in the 2022 midterms because the American people wanted us to be a check on Biden, and we will fulfill that Constitutional duty”.
Things change, but LOL if you think a GOP-led Senate would confirm a Biden nominee in 2021.
5 Likes
Yeah, I think this is 100% true. And it’s a really smart move on the GOP’s part. We’ll give their nominees a fair shake and they will refuse all of ours. That’s a huge win for them and we’re too dumb to ever figure it out.
https://mobile.twitter.com/seungminkim/status/1308471894992130050
?
https://mobile.twitter.com/Chrisk0909/status/1308472900379463684
That’ll show em!
3 Likes
NOTHING OFF THE TABLE
7 Likes