I get your point, but OTHO wouldn’t it make it more of a imperative to block a President’s nominee, a more frantic scrapple to confirm as many judgeships as one can during a period when one party holds the WH and the Senate? And since federal court case can take along time to go through the system then there could be monkey business with delaying some cases, and fast tracking others depending on the make up the SC.
1 Like
Could get around the advice and consent bit by saying silence is consent, appoint a judge or justice, and let the Supremes decide if that’s constitutional
5 Likes
This is unconscionable. I understand that it may not be what he wishes for himself in his ideal world. But the good of the order should come first. Stephen, thank you for your service, happy retirement, and buh-bye.
4 Likes
Yet another example of why $10 million SCOTUS retirement benefits would be so beneficial. And if that doesn’t work, make it $20 million. Congress should just bribe these assholes into retirement. Call it infrastructure and put it in the reconciliation bill.
14 Likes
Let me guess, your high school crush was Fay Wray?
7 Likes
RBG had cancer and chose not to retire. Breyer has not revealed any health problems that I know of.
1 Like
That was suggested with Garland and ash canned. Because reasons?
1 Like
I like your past recommendation of senior status as of say, age 67. They get to do routine stuff but no participation in votes.
7 Likes
Just wonder if Biden doesn’t win the next election and it goes to the unmentionables again, and Breyer croaks, then where are we?
This guy is not thinking in the long term, it’s about present power. Get a clue.
4 Likes
OT:
Dan Patrick seems to underestimate the seriousness behind all of this. Looks at it as a stunt. He is at war and doesn’t even know it.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says that when TX Democrats arrive back in the state, "they'll be arrested and brought to the Capitol and we will pass these bills" pic.twitter.com/rrZSGeQWoA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2021
5 Likes
Conservatives do modify their views, but it is a totally different intellectual process from the rest of us. Conservatives start from the presumption of some set of defined truths, not subject to disproof by evidence or reality, and work from there. But they also change their defined truths, often without saying so (and, Ministry of Truth notwithstanding, do so relatively incrementally; look at how much the one-time “better dead than red” faction changed sides once Putin got a 40-ton crucifix to wear around his neck). So they do change their minds, but they are careful to define how they aren’t really doing so. In some cases, this happens every four or eight years, as the deficit scolds only come out when the Democrats control the White House.
7 Likes
In TX the whole government thing based on GOP primary politics, so his entire career is one big stunt. He gives two shits about actually governing.
2 Likes
I save my outrage for McConnell, where it belongs. Ginsberg was a fantastic justice all the way to the end.
7 Likes
No shout outs for Myrna Loy?
4 Likes
Mitch is playing the Supreme Court nomination process as something out of Fight Club. Breyer and the Democrats are playing by the Marquis of Queensbury rules. Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.
Or, to quote The Untouchables - They put one of your guys in the hospital, you put one of their guys in the morgue.
4 Likes
The election that matters is the 2022 Senate - if the Dems lose it, McConnell will block any appointment until we get DeSantis or someone worse as President.
7 Likes
Dead or hopelessly blackmailed. Threats to his family. Nothing is too evil. This will definitely happen. Breyer must know it but doesn’t care.
2 Likes
I’d require term limits for SCOTUS once they are over 65. They get another 10 years after their 65th birthdays. Fewer unexpected departures this way.
Any impeachment charges against Clarence Thomas are way beyond any statute of limitation claims (the grounds for impeachment isn’t his pubic-hair-on-the-coke-can discussions with Anita Hill but that he blatantly lied about it under oath during his impeachment hearings). On the other hand, Brett Kavanaugh is a credibly accused rapist and it is still within the statute of limitation in Maryland. (If enough of his other victims and/or witnesses come forward and/or his partner in crime were investigated and turned, all of which assumes that the Montgomery County prosecutors and Bethesda, MD police could grow a pair, they could initiate a criminal action.)
1 Like
Look, I like and respect you but you’re saying the GOP would assassinate a Supreme Court justice, correct? Just giving myself kind of a hearing test here.
5 Likes
Mandatory senior status at the latter of age 65/70/whatever or 10 years service on the Court. Senior judges get to hear appeals as part of 3-judge panels, but do not get to participate in en banc rehearings. Judges going senior open up a seat on the active Court.
Really, anything that encourages turnover is fine with me. Congressional retirement bribery should be helpful.
10 Likes