Just that. Thomas and Alito most will probably retire in the next 4 years, but what about Sotomayor? What’s going to happen with the appeals courts? How hungover will king Leo be tomorrow from the champagne?
It means the courts are illegitimate and their decisions can safely be ignored from now on.
I say make Trump serve as president from behind prison bars. Prove that no one is above the law.
I’ve been wondering about this, and unfortunately the only thing that makes sense is some deal that ensures he stays out of jail. He can’t vacate the conviction.
All the federal indictments will go away of course.
He got what he wanted.
Tons of people are above the law. Justice is a dish best served in fiction.
All the cases against Trump are thrown out for one reason or another, and the courts are packed with Nazis and religious fanatics.
You’re going to see a lot of right-wing Millennial judges who will be on the bench for the next 40-50 years.
There will be longterm implications indeed. For me, the critical question is how that will affect me and those closest to me. A lot of people will be inconvenienced, marginalized - and worse.
There are currently 47 judicial vacancies, and an additional 20 where the judge has announced their intention to retire. Six of these are circuit court seats. Of these 67 total seats, only 28 have had a replacement nominated by the President.
Frustratingly, unfathomably, infuriatingly, it looks like a Democratic Administration is once again going to leave dozens of judicial vacancies unfilled for Trump to come in and immediately populate with Federalist Society hacks. And this time without the excuse of an opposition Senate.
It means he will pack the Supreme Court.
It seems already packed enough; the speculation that Thomas and Alito may step down to allow Trump to appoint younger conservatives to maintain that imbalance for many years to come seems plausible as well.
Roberts… He’s almost 70 himself, but for some reason I don’t see him doing this.
Kavanaugh and Gorsuch are only in their 50s so there wouldn’t be any need for them to step down.
It will now be packed 5 trump judges to 4. Alito and Thomas will step down at some point in the next 4 years.
This is, I think, what bothers me most about his win last night. I’m just so damn tired of evil winning. The message his win says is, “We don’t care how much of a criminal you are, as long as you hate the same people we do.” The rule of law is just… gone, now.
Unlike cabinet positions, the President cannot appoint acting justices to the Court. They must be approved by Congress. Democrats will have to turn each confirmation hearing into a circus to beat down the ugliest candidates. That process will itself be ugly but might work. It did on Bork.
sorry, now it’s a shoo-in for Trump to get what he wants
This is probably the easiest prediction to make, because it’s one of the things he actually succeeded at doing last time: pack every court that has an opening with GOP loyalist judges as chosen by the Federalist Society. No reason to expect he’ll do it differently this time.