So Merrick Garland's going to be Obama's next appointment to the SC, right?

[argonaut]

I'm just putting it out there. He's an uncontroversial moderate, so in other words - assuming the GOP take back Congress *vomits* - a good choice for the Supreme Court if Obama wants to avoid a messy political battle.

I'm assuming, for the purposes of this, that Bader Ginsburg will retire before 2012, which isn't an unreasonable assumption.

Oh, and congratulations to Justice Kagan. :)

[DFLforever]

1. No, he's saving him for when Kennedy retires

Or when Scalia slips on a banana peel.

Since we're guessing, those are my guesses.

[BluegrassDem]

2. Agreed. Garland will replace Kennedy or one of the conservatives

If Ginsburg retires, I think it'll be another woman.

[ShadowLiberal]

3. With the # of votes Kagan got it'll be almost impossible for Obama to fill a vacancy

Seriously, unless we dump the filibuster then we're never going to be able to get ANYONE through in the next congress.

If we get knocked down to say 53 seats in the senate (like Nate's numbers say now) then we'd need 7 votes from republicans, and all our democrats to vote yes, to get a nominee through, and Kagan only got 5 votes from the GOP, and lost one democrat's vote.

This is a horrible situation, especially since Kagan was the most moderate person Obama was considering, outside of Garland. Seriously, the GOP has become so radical that it's impossible for us to get ANY true hardcore liberal through.

We're almost at the point that the opposition party is going to be able to filibuster any nominee a president makes for the Supreme Court for years, just so that they can get a president from their party to make the nomination. That's what the filibuster is going to let the GOP do if we get a vacancy in the next congress, and they get reasonably confident that they can beat Obama in 2012.

[LiberalFighter]

4. To increase Obama's leverage we need to maintain or increase the margins in Congress.

Work toward that goal will make Obama's job much easier.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. +10,000. But sadly, that no longer seems to be the "mission" of DU. (nt)

[WI_DEM]

6. Doesn't sound like Ginsburg is in a hurry to retire--also the GOP isn't likely to take back the

Senate--as the senate picture has brightened in recent months in states like NV, CO, PA, NC--among others. Dems will lose some ground in the senate but will probably end up with 54-56 members when the election is over.

RE Ginsburg:

Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan - along with Justice Antonin Scalia - would make it four from New York City on the court for the first time. There had been speculation that Ginsburg might retire. But Ginsburg, 77, said she would stay on indefinitely.



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/08/05/2010-08-05_senate_voting_to_make_kagan_a_supreme.html#ixzz0vqB99M5S