By confirming Kavanaugh, the Senate will be de-legitimizing the Supreme Court.

[kentuck]

It is one step too far.

The Supreme Court will not have the credibility it needs to define the laws of this land. This upcoming decision by the Republicans will do great harm to the Supreme Court.

As if Clarence Thomas was not enough of a stain upon the esteemed Court of our land, they stopped Merrick Garland from being voted on and put in Neil Gorsuch to replace him. That alone was too much for the Court to maintain credibility with a lot of Americans.

Now, they have hurriedly shoved Brett Kavanaugh thru the process, without sufficient examination and investigation, and there is nothing the Court can do to preserve their credibility with the majority of Americans.

[dalton99a]

1. .

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211152015

[California_Republic]

2. Maybe just want they want

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I am wondering how Chief Justice Roberts will handle the situation.

After all, this court has his name on it. It's called "the Roberts court" and that's the name it will carry as long as he's the Chief Justice. Roberts is about as close to a centrist as the court has any more; although he's conservative he occasionally votes with the liberals, and is not a rigid originalist like Scalia was and Gorsuch is. He is also known to favor consensus. How will he feel about the taint Kavanaugh - a partisan political operative of dubious integrity with extreme views, who might have committed sexual assault - brings to "his" court? As Chief Justice, Roberts has a lot of control over the administrative aspects of the court's operations (like recusals), and although he can't force justices to change their decisions presumably he can try to negotiate a justice away from some kinds of crazy. I truly do not believe that a majority of the justices would vote to protect Trump from all legal proceedings. I don't think Roberts would let the court with his name on it piss on the Constitution by ceding its power to the executive.

[Nevilledog]

6. Funny, I was just thinking this same thing.

He'll be a pariah amongst the justices. Her diminishes them, the court, and any decisions.

[shanny]

4. that ship sailed long ago

Merrick Garland anyone? Clarence Thomas? Alito? Even John "balls and strikes" Roberts.

[snowybirdie]

5. He's already

degraded the Presidency, and the Congress. He'll hit the trifecta by degrading the Court

[RockRaven]

7. Any argument about the importance of the institution, its apolitical nature, tradition, public trust

etc are all out the window. SCOTUS is defunct as a respected, evidence-and-reason based entity. It is now a purely political body where the only thing that matters is power.

By handling Kavanaugh they way they have (and will continue to), the GOP has undercut all of the arguments they would use if the Dems turned around in 2021 and try to "pack" the court by adding Justices. Remember the size of the court is determined by legislation, which can be changed with only a bill passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the President.

They will still make that argument, mind you, that SCOTUS is something to be venerated and the Dems are being dirty and dishonorable by politicizing it, but we can rebut that by pointing at them and simply saying "Merrick Garland. Brett Kavanaugh."

And in order to pack the court the Senate may have to ditch the legislative filibuster (unless they can swing a 60 vote majority by then). Which is certainly a risk.