Udall floats plan to confirm Gorsuch, Garland to SCOTUS together

[alp227]

Source: CNN

Sen. Tom Udall has an idea that could place both Judge Neil Gorsuch and Judge Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court at the same time.

The Democrat from New Mexico presented the plan Monday morning to Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, as well as to Gorsuch's team of White House aides and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who's been attending Gorsuch's meetings with senators.

His proposal is for Trump to meet privately with Supreme Court justices who are interested in retirement. If one of those justices decided they would be willing to retire, and if Trump promises to nominate Garland, President Barack Obama's unconfirmed former SCOTUS pick, in their place, then the retiring justice would submit a letter of resignation contingent on that promise.

Then, both Garland and Gorsuch would be voted on simultaneously.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/politics/tom-udall-gorsuch-garland-scotus-plan/

[Angry Dragon]

1. bold move

[yellowcanine]

9. Bold but stupid. No guarantee that Garland would be confirmed.

Or that Trump would keep his word. Too many moving pieces here.

[Demsrule86]

10. They get confirmed together...or not at all...one vote.

[onenote]

36. That isn't going to happen.

even if it was consistent with Senate rules, which I doubt.

[Demsrule86]

55. probably not.

However, if we could convince the orange idiot ...it would help to keep the courts our of their hands for a year or so.

[Yupster]

40. Why don't we add that Trump

buys a pony for the grand kid of each senator and House member?

To make a deal each side has to give the other side something more than they can just take on their own.

Trump is going to get Gorsuch confirmed.

If the Democratic senators want to get Garland confirmed, they would have to offer Trump an awful lot more than what he already has, which is the ability to get Gorsuch confirmed regardless of what the Democrats want.

[Demsrule86]

54. Yes but make it cost him...nuke the filibuster.

McConnell hates that idea.

[onenote]

37. I assume the resignation would be contingent on, and only take effect

if Garland is confirmed.

[lastlib]

48. Agreed. I don't trust McTurtle either.

[LanternWaste]

57. I too call things 'stupid' without full and relevant knowledge. We're Americans... it's what we do.

I too call things 'stupid' without full and relevant knowledge. We're Americans... it's what we do.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

2. WHAT.IN.THE.FUCK!

[Sherman A1]

3. Sounds like a episode of

The West Wing.

[elleng]

24. Exactly!

[Hortensis]

30. My thought also, of course, reality less promising

than those two extraordinary minds who like and respected each other. But it would put mostly to rest the unresolved issue of the stolen nomination.

And it sounds like someone might need to retire over the next four years, thus protecting against getting another Scalia-type hard-right conservative, by definition lacking proper judicial temperament.

Why would McConnell agree, though?

[CincyDem]

4. Would NOT trust Trump as far as I could throw a f'ing piano on that one. n/t

[pandr32]

6. Exactly what I was thinking!

[JudyM]

12. Or McConnell!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. "if Trump promises" -- DO NOT BELIEVE tRUMP! tRump is not a man of his word. . . nt

[groundloop]

39. That was my thought when I read the article.... and probably most everyone else as well

45* will promise the moon, then renege at the first chance. It's a fools folly to take that ratfucker's word for anything.

[Old Vet]

7. Would be worth investigating IF there was any republican to be trusted...

Because IMO Gorsuch is gonna be slammed thru at any cost...........

[exboyfil]

8. Sounds like the North Carolina deal

to rescind HB2. We saw what happened with that.

Likely you would swap Ginsburg for Garland. That moves the court to the right.

More likely Ginsburg will resign and the Republicans will renege. They know there is no consequences.

Best to pray for RBG's health.

[Shell_Seas]

17. She's already said

that she has no plans on retiring soon. Clarence Thomas, however, has spoke about retirement.

[exboyfil]

20. I would take that trade in a heart beat

The Democrats have no power though so there is no way on the planet. Trump's going to put at two 40 somethings onto the Court that will be with us for the next 30-40 years.

[Native]

49. Me too.

[paleotn]

44. I pray for her health every day....

Hell, I don't even believe in prayer, but I'm taking no chances.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. Trump can't resist a deal

F Garland is definitely confirmed. You get a court that's no more
right than when Scalia squatted there, and you get a middle age mainstream Justice.
It's an attempt to save one seat, presumable the older justices most of whom are libs.
Several could decide to retire.

Maybe he's trying to induce Trump to meddle with something unpopular with the public?

Or preserve what's left of the Constitution and the stolen seat.

[stopbush]

13. Doesn't work if the retiring judge is a liberal. The court then has a conservative

majority once again.

As the most-likely candidate for retirement is Ginsberg, I don't see the immediate advantage. Long term, it might work if it meant getting a younger liberal judge on the court before Ginsberg is forced to step down due to age, illness, etc.

After all, had Garland been confirmed, the court would have had a 5-4 liberal slant.

[onenote]

38. True. But when Gorsuch is confirmed (and he will be) it will be 5-4 conservative

and if one of the members of the liberal wing resigns or dies after that, and Trump is still President, and the Democrats don't control the Senate, it will be a 6-3 conservative court.

This plan attempts to keep it at 5-4 rather than 6-3 for a longer period of time than might otherwise be the case.

That being said, I see no reason for the repubs to go along with it.

[briv1016]

14. "Trump promises"

Now there's your problem right there.

[AgadorSparticus]

15. I don't think thwy will go for it.

[Shell_Seas]

18. They won't.

[ToxMarz]

23. They MIGHT go for it if a Liberal leaning judge would retire

They won't go for it if a conservative leaning judge would retire. And if they got an indication that a liberal (ie Ginsburg) was open to the idea, they would probably discount her pledge to stay as long as possible betting she will leave anyway and reject the idea in favor of the prospect to appoint two conservatives. I think the whole thing is a distraction from #resist and #indivisilbe by dangling rainbows and unicorns in front of hopeful liberals.

[alarimer]

16. Aaron Sorkin thought of it first.

Season 5, episode 17:

http://westwing.wikia.com/wiki/The_Supremes

Republicans and Trump cannot be trusted to keep their word and not pull a fast. I wouldn't risk it.

[BainsBane]

19. Nice idea

The right won't allow it, but it's a valiant effort.

[wildeyed]

21. Garland was already the compromise.

A well respected moderate who should have passed the confirmation with flying colors. Instead they spit in his face.

[NewJeffCT]

27. agreed

Garland was already a compromise who had been approved overwhelmingly in a bipartisan vote.

However, if you can get Gorusch for Thomas, I'd take Garland for Scalia.

[truebluegreen]

31. Yup.

And here we go: offering to compromise with our compromise position.


It is no mystery why the Right keeps moving further right.

[bucolic_frolic]

22. Garland and Ayotte

are so last session of Congress

[brooklynite]

25. Well GOLLY! It worked in "THE WEST WING"...

[mopinko]

50. yeah.

wonder how many are realizing where this idea comes from.

[pkdu]

26. ONLY if Clarence "Coke-can" Thomas hands his resignation in BEFORE any votes. nt

[red dog 1]

42. That will never happen

"Who put this pubic hair on my Coke?"

[truebluegreen]

28. He's been watching The West Wing.

One problem: relying on Trump's word.

Not happening.

[Rebl2]

29. What's Udall been

smoking? Since when can we trust anything Trump says or does or any repug for that matter.

[Trust Buster]

32. Dream on. Rethuglicans will never agree to this.

[INdemo]

33. If this odd situation occured then Republicans would find a way

for Trump to nominate another right wing Judge and then have Two Justices to confirm,both being of the Right Wing ideology..

Dream On Senator Udall

[Rustyeye77]

34. oh...Trust Trump ???

I don't think so.

[Rustyeye77]

35. I got a better idea...

You want Gorsuch ??

GIVE US OBAMA AT THE SAME TIME !!!!

[lark]

41. Bad idea.

RBG is sick and would be most likely to leave. Garland is not the liberal lion she is, he seems quite corporate so we'd be doubly screwed. RBG needs to hang in there if she can!

[IronLionZion]

43. Which would be fine if we had a trustworthy president

instead of the liar in chief who screws everyone who has ever made any contract with him

Agent orange and the elephants will agree to this and then appoint a Scalia clone and vote to confirm 2 RW extremists.

I'm sure Ginsburg was hoping to retire soon but Thomas doesn't look too healthy or happy and may want out.

[Retrograde]

45. I prefer this variant:

confirm Gardner, then hold hearings on Gorsuch and see if he's suitable for the highest bench.

One would think that by now Democrats in Congress (and everywhere else) have learned by now not to trust McConnell or Ryan to put country first, or to keep any promises.

[Crash2Parties]

46. "Would be voted on" - those are weasel words! They'll vote "yes" and "no"!

This is similar to what happened in North Carolina over HB2 & Charlotte's local anti-discrimination ordinance. The GOP Legislature offered a deal- they'd repeal HB2 if Charlotte would repeal their anti-discrimination ordinance. The city did so, in good faith; the Legislature just laughed and said, "sucker"...

[Cryptoad]

47. "Promise"?????????

are u shitting me,,,,,,,,,, sorry his word is not his bond! I shan't trust him any farther than I can urinate on him!

[HoneyBadger]

51. Trump likes deals

He would do it for an RBG deal

[Buckeyeblue]

52. Only if Thomas is the one to go

Then I'm all for it. Otherwise, we can continue on with the 8 justices we have.

[yurbud]

53. Republicans don't keep deals

[Fatemah2774]

56. No way

Thomas won't retire until Roe is overturned...no one else can be thinking of leaving except Breyer...and he realizes what that would mean...otherwise too many ways for that plan to backfire including getting Gorusch approved and without Garland getting approved...icky icky icky

[Sparky 1]

58. No no no no no to Gorsuch!