Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Trump's SCOTUS picks

Yes, picks. Today, he will announce his first for the vacant seat once held by Scalia.

Within the next four years, he is likely to get at least one more and perhaps three more. Kennedy is 80 and has expressed an interest in retirement. Ginsburg will be 84 in weeks and her health is horrible. Breyer is 78.

Those are the most likely, though Roberts has heart issues and is 62. Thomas is not a picture of health at all and will be 69 in June. Alito is 67.

If Trump is re-elected in 2020, he could quite conceivable replace all seven of those Justices before the end of a second term (that would put Roberts at 69, Alito at 74, Thomas at 76, Breyer at 85, Kennedy at 87, and Ginsburg at 91; assuming each would be replaced the last year of his second term).

Expect the Senate GOPe to do everything possible to prevent Trump's picks from actually being confirmed, if they are strict Constitutionalists.

Suffice to say they will be significantly different than Hitlary's picks.

Hillary's picks woukld have sailed through the confirmation process. McConnell would have made sure of that.

President Trump's will go nowhere.

I'd far rather a SCOTUS full of Thomas'. Scalia was just as likely to legislate from the bench as O'Connor, and he was quite happy with a powerful central government. Thomas is a strict Constitutionalist and a solid advocate for small government starting his opinions from the Constitution.

There will be opposition, no doubt but make no mistake Trump's pick will go through.

Really?

McConnell won't even get Sessions through, no way a SC Justice will be confirmed anytime soon.

You're a real ray of sunshine. Let's hope you're wrong.

[A]ccording to CNN, Democrats discussed during a private retreat in West Virginia last week that blocking Trump’s Supreme Court nominee — who would replace the late conservative Justice Antonin Scalia — is potentially unwise and it would be better if they saved their big battle over the Supreme Court for when the seat of a more left-leaning justice opens up.

Democrats may be looking at others on the court like liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 83, or Stephen Breyer, 78, when it comes to their next fight. Additionally, Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the swing vote on the court, is 80. If Republicans do away with the filibuster and one of the older justices’ seats become available, it could change the makeup of the court for a long time.

Joe Manchin, Bill Nelson, Chris Coons and some other Democrats only speaking off the record were unwilling to back a filibuster. They might vote against the nominee, but they weren’t backing Jeff Merkley’s play. And let’s keep in mind that these aren’t even the vulnerable, red state Democratic Senators who will be feeling the most heat. As Allahpundit mentioned, those are the folks who are already drawing some heat (and probably opposition fundraising) before they’ve even been coaxed out of their corners to take a position.

As I write this, the Senate Leadership Fund is beaming out one press release after another wondering if red-state Democrats whose seats are up in 2018 — Manchin, Heitkamp, Donnelly, etc — are onnboard with Merkley. I sure hope so! I’ve always thought Gorsuch would be preferable to Hardiman because he’s more of a known quantity ideologically. Put him on the bench and you know you’re getting a conservative; put Hardiman on the bench and you’re probably getting a conservative. If Trump was about to bypass Gorsuch for fear that he’d be filibustered, well, there’s no reason to fear that now. Pull the trigger.

The cooler heads among the Democrats seem to be viewing this in a way which best serves their caucus. There’s nothing stopping them from having a long, drawn out confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick and raise all sorts of complaints and then allow it to proceed to a vote where they can all mark down a “No” on their resume. Keep in mind, the person being replaced by Trump’s nominee was one of the biggest conservative lightning rods in the modern history of the court. No matter who takes that seat, it’s not going to push the court any further to the Right than it already was.

On the other hand, should one of the liberal seats (or Kennedy’s) come open in the next four years it would be a massive change in the game. If they’re going to try for a filibuster then, at least they’d have the proper approval of this pick to point to as an example of being “reasonable” and showing some respect to the Oval Office. If they go to the wall on this one and the GOP pulls the trigger on the nuclear option, Trump could nominate Sarah Palin for a potential second opening and they’d have nothing left in the tool kit to stop him.

The 2018 midterms tip the Senate past the "balancing" point, or else much of this is about nothing. The leftist Dems and RINOs in the Senate can play around ad nauseum for as long as they want currently.

That needs to change in 2018. It would be nice if the RINOs got voted out.

Replaced with real conservatives who love America and its Constitution.