The thing I can't stop thinking about is this: I'm 48, and in my adult lifetime there has been one Republican who won the popular vote. But I will probably spend the rest of my life under the authority of a Supreme Court dominated by hard right conservatives. How is that democracy?
Umm…no. That would also require the Democrats to control the Senate, and no conservative judges, let alone 2, will just not retire while Democrats control both the White House and the Senate.
They might die or they might not 🤷♂️
Oliver Wendell Holmes stayed until he was 90
Jack B. Weinstein kept a full docket on E.D.N.Y. until he died in 2021 at 99
When Obama took the bench in 2009 there was still one Eisenhower appointee left with a full docket
With modern medicine what it is, the likelihood that two men in their 70s drop dead without some type of protracted battle with a terminal illness are almost 0. Much more likely one of them survives into their 90s to witness with glee what havoc their SCOTUS tenure has reaped on the US.
And strategically timed retirements have taken over the appellate bench. SCOTUS is that much more significant, and Alito & Thomas are die-hard idealogues who understand the power they wield
They could be replaced with Dem appointees but it'd requite a stroke of good fortune
bsky.app/profile/saba...
Under Biden's presidency, of 41 appointees to the US Circuit Courts of Appeals (5 await confirmation), only 4 are GOP to Dem flips, of which 2 are due to deaths and 2 due to retirements (there are 179 seats total)
Biden also elevated a Trump appointee following retirement of a G.W. Bush appointee
