# Court Packing: An Idea Whose Time Has Come Around Again? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 4, 2017, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916 "2017-10-04T04:19:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/81 "2017-10-04T22:00:36Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > The candidate the Dems ran made absolutely no difference to the outcome of the election, since Donald Trump ran against a fictionalized version, created from whole cloth by the only media conservative viewers “trust.” Any candidate that was run would have lost – by that point, I even suspect Obama would have – because something like half the country were deeply offended by the heinous traits that the candidate didn’t even possess. We can never know for sure but it is widely believed Bernie Sanders would have beaten Trump had he been the democratic candidate. This is backed up by polls where Sanders consistently beat Trump in a hypothetical match-up (for whatever that is worth). ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/82 "2017-10-04T22:02:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > How long are you guys going to litigate this nonsense? Once you stop pretending nothing unusual or untoward happened. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/83 "2017-10-04T22:05:01Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > This is absolutely theft of the SCOTUS seat, and I don’t think the conservative side realizes exactly how angry the left is about it. There is no conceivable reading of the Constitution in which the GOP’s position is legitimate. Suppose for a moment that Ruth Ginsburg had passed away during Bush’s last year in office. Do you think the political left would have been OK with Bush nominating a centrist in her place, or would they have insisted on “Replace a liberal with a liberal?” > [@TimeWinder](#): > > they actually said they would not consider _anyone_ for the seat. Had Obama nominated someone like Gorsuch, I think the GOP actually would have Senate-confirmed him, yes. Finally, suppose the Republican Senators made a “show” of allowing Garland to get a hearing, but simply voted him down (and always intended to) when the confirmation vote came. Would that really be that much different than what happened in real life? ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/84 "2017-10-04T22:08:47Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > The candidate the Dems ran made absolutely no difference to the outcome of the election, since Donald Trump ran against a fictionalized version, created from whole cloth by the only media conservative viewers “trust.” Any candidate that was run would have lost – by that point, I even suspect Obama would have – because something like half the country were deeply offended by the heinous traits that the candidate didn’t even possess. It doesn’t matter. I dislike Biden, but had he run — and I sympathize with his reasons for not running, so a Biden-like character — there would have been little they could have done with his reputation. Certainly Obama would have won against Trump, as he himself admitted. And if the Republican character-assassination squad is so great how come Obama won the previous 8 years ? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/85 "2017-10-04T22:14:55Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Isn’t the filibuster obsolete? The GOP won’t push to repeal Obamacare “in regular order” because they know the resultant catastrophes would expose their stupidity. But when something important comes along — tax cuts for the super-rich — don’t you think they will exercise the Thermonuclear option in the Senate? > > _ **Let me go on record: If the Party of the American People ever regains 51% control from the Party of Kleptocrats, I do hope they “go Thermonuclear” and act to restore American Democracy for future generations.** _ As someone else pointed out, if the Democrats go “thermonuclear” and pack SCOTUS with, say, a hundred extra justices, then the next time the GOP regains the presidency and a Senate majority, they can go “Inter-Galactic Death Star Beam” and pack it with ten thousand justices. Is that really the path we want to go down? ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/86 "2017-10-04T22:15:38Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Suppose for a moment that Ruth Ginsburg had passed away during Bush’s last year in office. Do you think the political left would have been OK with Bush nominating a centrist in her place, or would they have insisted on “Replace a liberal with a liberal?” Certainly they would have made noises about that. I expect if Bush appointed a far right justice Dems would obstruct it. If Bush appointed someone pretty moderate (like Garland but slightly on the right of things) I expect it would have gotten through. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/87 "2017-10-04T22:17:29Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > As someone else pointed out, if the Democrats go “thermonuclear” and pack the SCOTUS with, say, a hundred extra justices, then the next time the GOP regains a Senate majority, they can go “Inter-galactic Meteor-Death Star” and pack it with ten thousand justices. Is that really the path we want to go down? It’s weird how republicans never seem to worry about this when doing similar. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/88 "2017-10-04T22:20:02Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > As someone else pointed out, if the Democrats go “thermonuclear” and pack SCOTUS with, say, a hundred extra justices, then the next time the GOP regains the presidency and a Senate majority, they can go “Inter-Galactic Death Star Beam” and pack it with ten thousand justices. Is that really the path we want to go down? There’s no way court-packing would work, in my understanding, but the Democrats should have no illusions that the Republicans in Congress would hold back from any possible tactic that they think would increase their power and likelihood of being re-elected. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/89 "2017-10-04T22:34:45Z")
> [@Thing\_Fish](#): > > People are worried that if one more Supreme Court vacancy comes up during Trump’s term, it could solidify a fascist majority on the Court for decades to come. But how worried do we really need to be? > …snip… > > The next time the Democrats have control of government, we can just increase the size of the Court and appoint however many new Justices are necessary to ensure a sane liberal majority. Paranoid much? And kudos for the comedy gold in the sane liberal majority line. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/90 "2017-10-04T22:36:16Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > You forgot the part where the senate refused to do their job as specified in the constitution for a year. Where is it specified in the Constitution? Cite, please. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/91 "2017-10-04T22:42:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I was objecting even to “the colloquial use of the term”. And I said I think your objection is bullshit. Sounds like we’re clear here. > [@](#): > > This is like George, in a _Seinfeld_ episode. I watched an episode of Seinfeld once. Didn’t see the point. > [@](#): > > Get over it, or it’s going to be your undoing. (The generic “you”.) There’s a difference between not getting over something, and merely insisting on calling a spade a spade. The 2000 election was stolen. I don’t think about that very often, but when it comes up, I’m not going to beat around the bush. Same with Garland/Gorsuch. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/92 "2017-10-04T23:03:39Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > And I said I think your objection is bullshit. Sounds like we’re clear here. > I watched an episode of Seinfeld once. Didn’t see the point. > There’s a difference between not getting over something, and merely insisting on calling a spade a spade. The 2000 election was stolen. I don’t think about that very often, but when it comes up, I’m not going to beat around the bush. Same with Garland/Gorsuch. The 1960 election was stolen, and so was Bork’s seat. You give those back and I’ll make sure we fix up the 2000 election and the Garland seat. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/93 "2017-10-04T23:09:43Z")
> [@Evan\_Drake](#): > > And if the Republican character-assassination squad is so great how come Obama won the previous 8 years ? Because it’s gotten better and more entrenched. 8 years ago, “news” on the conservative side wasn’t entirely fictitious. Today, it bears only the most passing resemblance to reality. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/94 "2017-10-04T23:11:02Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > We can never know for sure but it is widely believed Bernie Sanders would have beaten Trump had he been the democratic candidate. Nonsense. He couldn’t even beat Hillary, and that was without having to face the fiction-bots. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/95 "2017-10-04T23:13:30Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The 1960 election was stolen, and so was Bork’s seat. So Kennedy wasn’t appointed to the court, because the Democrats refused to consider _ANY_ candidate? Huh. Must have missed that. Seriously, comparing “rejecting and replacing a candidate” to “not allowing a seat to be filled at all” is stunningly intellectually dishonest. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/96 "2017-10-04T23:15:57Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Nonsense. He couldn’t even beat Hillary, and that was without having to face the fiction-bots. But the failure to beat Clinton was with the DNC thumb on the scale. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/97 "2017-10-04T23:18:24Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > So Kennedy wasn’t appointed to the court, because the Democrats refused to consider _ANY_ candidate? Huh. Must have missed that. No, the Kennedy/Nixon example was offered in counter to the 2000 Bush/Gore election. The Bork rejection was offered in response to the Garland one. > [@](#): > > Seriously, comparing “rejecting and replacing a candidate” to “not allowing a seat to be filled at all” is stunningly intellectually dishonest. Failing to read the post to which I was responding and an inability to connect the analogy dots is just dim. But on the positive side, it’s not dishonest. So, stupid but honest. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/98 "2017-10-04T23:22:53Z")
Good grief. Here: Bush II’s presidency was stolen and if we’d gotten Gore then the entire supreme court would be packed with kale-chewing hippies by now. Are we done? And obviously, what the democrats need to do is nominate fifty new judges, and then make a law saying no additional judges can be appointed and that any replacement judge must be ideologically similar to the prior one. And then they should make another law saying the prior law was actually a superamendment requiring a 100% majority to change, and of course their army of judges should declare that both of the new laws are constitutional. I see no problems with this plan and subscribe to my own newsletter. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/99 "2017-10-04T23:23:41Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > The 1960 election was stolen, and so was Bork’s seat. You give those back and I’ll make sure we fix up the 2000 election and the Garland seat. Who’s talking about giving back anything? I’ll call a spade a spade with respect to 2000 and Garland, and if you feel the same about Bork or 1960, you can do the same. But if you want, we can exhume the corpse of Richard Milhous Nixon and place him in the Oval Office in place of the Orange Abomination. (Not sure how else we could ‘give back’ the 1960 election at this late date.) I won’t even ask for any give-backs in return. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916/100 "2017-10-04T23:26:52Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Who’s talking about giving back anything? I’ll call a spade a spade with respect to 2000 and Garland, and if you feel the same about Bork or 1960, you can do the same. > > But if you want, we can exhume the corpse of Richard Milhous Nixon and place him in the Oval Office in place of the Orange Abomination. (Not sure how else we could ‘give back’ the 1960 election at this late date.) I won’t even ask for any give-backs in return. 😃 Say what you will about Nixon, but he was a more capable chief exec alive than Trump is, and dead, he’d still be ahead on points. But fine: I _will_ simply call it: the 1960 election was stolen, as was Bork’s seat. Done. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-packing-an-idea-whose-time-has-come-around-again/797916.md?page=6)