# The GOP seating ANY Supreme Court Justice this year would permanently & irrevocably destroy politics

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-seating-any-supreme-court-justice-this-year-would-permanently-irrevocably-destroy-politics/853436>\
**Category:** Politics & Elections\
**Created:** [May 8, 2020, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-seating-any-supreme-court-justice-this-year-would-permanently-irrevocably-destroy-politics/853436 "2020-05-08T21:09:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**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:** [May 14, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-seating-any-supreme-court-justice-this-year-would-permanently-irrevocably-destroy-politics/853436/41 "2020-05-14T00:26:21Z")

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> [@Buck\_Godot](#):
>
> The Constitution means whatever the Supreme Court says it means. If Trump declares that due to the Covid 19 crisis, the results of the 2020 election were in error and as sitting president is declaring martial law until the situation can be rectified, so long as the SCOTUS agree with his interpretation, who can the Dems appeal to?

No. The person I was responding to posited that that the Senate would confirm a new justice on Jan 2nd, and then the Court would meet the same night to “okay a martial law decree.”

Utter nonsense.

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**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-seating-any-supreme-court-justice-this-year-would-permanently-irrevocably-destroy-politics/853436/42 "2020-05-14T00:57:30Z")

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> [@D\_Anconia](#):
>
> No. The person I was responding to posited that that the Senate would confirm a new justice on Jan 2nd, and then the Court would meet the same night to “okay a martial law decree.”
> 
> Utter nonsense.

I agree that the specific timing of the scenario proposed is far fetched, but that isn’t what you were arguing against when you pointed to article 3.

Note that even outside of the logistics involved in getting it all done in the same day, I don’t actually think that the current batch of justices are really so biased as to actually go along with the scenario described, but, short of a coup, there is really nothing we could do to stop them if they were so inclined.

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**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2020, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-gop-seating-any-supreme-court-justice-this-year-would-permanently-irrevocably-destroy-politics/853436/43 "2020-05-14T01:10:05Z")

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> [@Velocity](#):
>
> Of course not. By this logic, McConnell would have tried to pack the Supreme Court by now. He’s had a Senate majority for years and years and hasn’t.

I believe expanding the Supreme Court beyond 9 justices would require legislation and therefore approval of the House as well.

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