When people who are against feminism post that Justice Ginsburg should retire

[Jim Lane]

16. If Justice Ginsburg were to announce her retirement next week, a replacement could be confirmed.

Last edited Tue Jul 1, 2014, 02:58 AM - Edit history (1)

Not even the Republicans would dare to state openly that the seat should remain vacant until January 2017.

They would try to achieve that result sub rosa by stonewalling any Obama nominee. In practice, though, Obama would nominate someone who, although to the left of Kennedy, was well to the right of Ginsburg, to make sure that all the Blue Dogs would be on board. Then, if necessary, Harry Reid would go nuclear -- the previous action, disallowing filibusters for lower-court appointments, would be extended to the Supreme Court.

After the summer, though, things get dicier. The Republicans would be able to stall it past the midterms. If they then took the Senate majority, they might well be so brazen as to refuse to confirm even fairly conservative nominees, if those conservatives weren't all-out ideologues like Scalia. We would hear a LOT about Bork.

Going much farther down the what-if road... the Senate lineup is such that the Republican advantage this year gets flipped in 2016, when the Democrats defend fewer seats and the close races will be for seats now held by Republicans. One possible scenario is that, in 2016, the Republicans take the White House but the Democrats take the Senate. I hope the Democrats wouldn't just docilely confirm President Huckabee's nominee. If they don't, we could go several years with an eight- or even seven-member Supreme Court.