Runningart2004 wrote:
SAlly V wrote:
Alan, Trump replaced one conservative with a conservative. He replaced the swing vote with a solid conservative. the Supreme Court now skews 5-4 solidly with the conservatives and when Bader Ginsberg is gone, it will be 6-3 with the most solidly aligned court in one ideology since Roosevelt.
“Swing Vote” is a made up term. He was a conservative. Look at the history of the court. Certain conservative and liberal court members have “magically” centered their viewpoint based on presidential appointments. Happens all the time. Explain the recent 5-4 vote against a Trump policy?
RBG is going until she’s 90 then she will retire. Then the next president, a democrat, will appoint a “liberal” judge.
The last time a SCOTUS judge was “swapped” (dem appointee for GOP or vice versa) was under Clinton.
Alan
Kennedy was the "swing vote" for many years. RBG unfortunately won't make it to 90, I think.
ure of the Supreme Court and giving President Trump the chance to put a conservative stamp on the American legal system for generations.
Justice Kennedy, 81, has been a critical swing vote on the sharply polarized court for nearly three decades as he embraced liberal views on gay rights, abortion and the death penalty but helped conservatives trim voting rights, block gun control measures and unleash campaign spending by corporations.
His replacement by a conservative justice — something Mr. Trump has vowed to his supporters — could imperil a variety of landmark Supreme Court precedents on social issues where Justice Kennedy frequently sided with his liberal colleagues, particularly on abortion.
Mr. Trump and his Republican allies have hoped for months that Justice Kennedy might retire, clearing a way for a new, more conservative jurist before Democrats had an opportunity to capture the Senate and block future Republican nominees. In contrast to his frequent criticisms of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a generally reliable conservative, Mr. Trump has frequently heaped praise on Justice Kennedy and even has suggested that he might nominate one of his former clerks to the bench — subtle nudges the president hoped would make Justice Kennedy more comfortable with the idea of stepping down.
Justice Kennedy’s departure could leave Chief Justice Roberts, who was appointed by George W. Bush, as the decisive vote on a court whose other justices may soon include four committed liberals and four equally committed conservatives.
The court’s term that just ended offered a preview of what such a lineup might mean: With Justice Kennedy mostly siding with conservatives this year, the court endorsed Mr. Trump’s power over immigration, dealt a blow to labor unions and backed a Republican purge of voter rolls in Ohio.
