SCOTUS impeachment hypothetical

Politics & Elections
1

I thought this hypothetical would be a nice counterpoint to the thread(s) on the issue of packing the court. First off, the election results I propose are unlikely. Please don’t fight the hypothetical. Here it is.

We’ve woken up on 11/11, and all the votes have been counted. Biden won handily, if not quite a landslide. Democrats had an excellent night in the Senate. Victory was achieved in AZ, CO, GA 1&2, IA, ME, MT, and NC. Lindsey Graham lost a close one. So did John Cronyn here in Texas. Doug Jones somehow survived. To top it all off, McConnell himself lost. This puts the new Senate at 58-42 D.

Unfortunately, before this happened, ACB was confirmed and is now on the SCOTUS. Over the next two years, Roe vs. Wade and Obergefell are struck down. The Democrats pass new, popular laws on health care, the environment, law enforcement reform, immigration reform, and others. The SCOTUS, in challenges brought by AGs from red states, declares these laws unconstitutional. Despite all that, Biden decides not to pack the court.

2022 arrives, and the liberal electorate is pissed. Bucking the trends, it’s another blue tsunami in the Senate, where Republicans are defending a lot more seats than Democrats. Losses include AK, FL, IA, KS, NC, MO, OH, PA, and WI. This makes it a 67-33 D senate. The SCOTUS continues on the same path. The previously passed healthcare law is passed again and rapidly declared unconstitutional.

At this point, the question comes up about impeachment of the justices. Should the Democrats, in this scenario, impeach ACB, Kavanaugh, and / or Gorsuch?

If things got to such an extreme, I would be in favor of doing so.

2

At that point, it might be smarter to just start amending the Constitution.

3

Impeachment should not be used for political purposes, but it should be used for crimes. Even outside of your hypothetical, the Democrats should, on gaining power, do an actual investigation of Kavanaugh, at least, who, based on what we already know, is probably a rapist. That “probably” isn’t yet “beyond a reasonable doubt”, but let’s see what an actual investigation finds.

4

Yep, in this scenario it sounds like the country is at least temporarily united enough to pass some important new amendments.

Impeaching justices is just a bandaid until the next time the court swings to the right. Yeah those swings take decades, but they’re inevitable.

5

I would rather a Dem president and congress bury the SC in legislation. The nine of them can’t get to everything immediately and the more popular the legislation that is denied, the more harm to its credibility it will do. If it does too much harm to its own credibility (in the eyes of the electorate) Dems can start to pretty much ignore the decisions, or at least inch so close to the court-drawn lines that they will be effectively countered.

The fucking Supreme Court doesn’t run the country. Republicans will only hurt themselves if they insist on things like Roe and Obergfell being overturned.

6

Many of the laws overturned by SCOTUS could have passed muster with just a little tinkering if there was only a united congress to do so. If SCOTUS strikes down an important law, just pass a new one that would comply with the ruling.

7

I prefer packing to impeachment without an actual offense. But with that kind of majority, amendments might be in order. And the remaining Reps would be running scared and unwilling to oppose what the people have so clearly demonstrated they want.

8

Yeah, if the posited scenario occurs then the country has taken a revolutionary turn to the left, undoubtedly sweeping Democrats into power in unprecedented numbers in the House of Representatives, governorships and state legislatures. Seems kind of small-ball to use that kind of mandate to impeach a judge.

9

So we have at least a super-majority in the Senate. If I’m reading OP’s time-line right, we still have 1/3 of the current Trumpist Republicans in the Senate. There would be enough Dem votes, and perhaps enough popular backing, to expel the remaining lot of them. (ETA: Power grab? What power grab? I’ll show you a power grab!)

One can ALWAYS find crimes to charge someone with.

10

Just change the law to temporarily set the Supreme Court retired justice pension to 500 million dollars per year. Instant open seats.