With the death of Justice Ginsberg and the inevitable (and totally legal) nomination of Judge Barrett. the left has gone crazy, (crazier?) claiming that the President is packing the Court with conservatives. There are two problems with this argument. First of all, the Court is not packed with conservatives. Right now, there are only two reliable conservatives on the Court. Justice Stevens, and Justice Alito. The two newer Associate Justices, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, are too new to know if the will opine conservatively.
We will learn, over time, if Gorsuch and Kavanaugh are conservatives. The other Justice touted as conservative is the Chief Justie, John Roberts, who is a closet liberal. He has screwed conservatives more times than I ever wanted to count. He gave us Obamacare not once, but twice. I hold him in great disdain, and as I've said here before, if I ever get the chance, I'll spit on his shoes.
We know who the liberal Justices are. . Kagan, Sotomayer, and Breyer. They vote lock-step. I also count Roberts in this crew. So, right now, I see the Court as a wash, with four liberals and four conservatives.
Court packing is an old term that came during the term of FDR. He famously threatened to put a bunch of new liberal justices on the Court, increasing the population to fifteen or more.
Jude Barrett, by every indication, is a fine choice to replace Justice Ginsberg. I think that the timing is unfortunate, because she doesn't deserve the treatment to with she will be subjected.
But, the current media narrative that the Democrats and media are promoting that Trump is packing the Court is plainly and transparently ridiculous.
Justice Stevens retired from the court in 2010, and died in 2019. When he was on the court he was not very conservative (see, for example, his dissent in Heller). Did you mean to say Justice Thomas?
ReplyDeleteYes, I meant Justice Thomas. hanks for the catch.
ReplyDeleteI've seen very convincing speculation that Roberts is the big reason that SCOTUS hasn't taken up any new 2A cases since McDonald.
ReplyDeleteIt takes the approval of 4 justices to grant cert. There are 4 solid 2A supporters and 4 solid enemies. Roberts is a complete wild card, and neither side is willing to take the risk that he'll go against them, so both sides choose to deny the cases, even on questions where the various circuit courts are running in completely opposite directions.