As the newspeople never cease to remind us right before the State of the Union speech (when everyone is gathered together) there’s one unfortunate minor Cabinet member (like Education, Agriculture or Homeland Security) whose job it is to be somewhere else should the unthinkable happen.
As demonstrated in the documentary, Battlestar Galactica.
Well, on some days it is very important.
If there are pivotal cases before the Court, the decisions which are made can tear apart the country and/or hugely influence life within it for decades, maybe ‘forever’'.
I would hope, and I think ‘the people’ would expect, that the Court would be “restarted” expeditiously (and with appointments to it having been made only as a result of sincere and informed discussion, with as much bipartisan support as possible). Phrased differently, I can’t believe that SCOTUS would be allowed, or accepted, to languish in a nonfunctional or dysfunctional manner for years.