Justice Sotomayor is the greatest risk, and she could have engineered her exit earlier this year. Remember that in November. Dems aren’t even playing the same game.
They are playing the same game they always have: use carrots like this to get voters to the polls, and hold off on those carrots until an election year.
The problem is that it doesn’t reliably work. Progressive voters just see three and half years of very little progress and six months of fearmongering and pandering, which causes as much or more apathy than it does engagement.
If you look at what the Right does, by comparison, it’s interesting. They throw red meat to their base on day one, and keep it up for the entire term. They know that they need to keep the base pumped and expecting results, which is a big reason why conservative voters turn out at much higher rates: they feel listened to.
Sitting here at 5 months out from election day…when will we finally get some good quality pandering?
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Can’t Biden add more himself? I’m Canadian. Please help me understand
Yes he can. But what you have now is a game of political chicken. One of the few gentleman’s handshakes that still exist is just the justices the US has. Since 1869, it’s been 9 of them. But in the past there were as few as 5 and as many as 10.
There is no law that says you can’t have 17. Biden could literally appoint 8 more democratic life appointed judges if they got through the confirmation process.
But then the day Trump or the next republican is elected, they can just appoint N-1, 16, republicans… Then when it flips again, 32 more democrats… It would never end. The court would be proven to be political, even though that facade is crumbling with the ignorant American masses finally.
Isn’t that how the Republicans add more judges? Didn’t they just not give a shit and just add them under Trump?
What happened is two of them died, one retired, opening up three spots. One actually died during Obama’s term, but the Dems let the Republicans delay the appointment thinking Hillary was a shoe in and then lost that position. Stronger governance and they could’ve appointed one of their own before Trump. Also RBG dumbly (and selfishly) did not retire under Obama, another Dem misstep out of weakness and unnecessary righteousness.
Ah ok. Thanks for the explanation.
The size of the court has not changed in a long time. Trump only appointed replacements.
There is no law that says you can’t have 17.
Yes there is. It is the Judiciary Act of 1869.
It’s pretty frustrating that they keep using this as a bargaining chip, we see how that worked in 2016.
Imagine Amy Barret as the leader of the 4 most liberal justices.
