Idea for the Supreme Court

[TheFarseer]

Every President gets to place two justices. One in the first and one in the third year. If the new justice would make a total of more than nine justices, then the longest serving justice must retire. That would end this stupid game of trying to place more justices in your four years than the next or last president gets to place.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. What if more than two die or retire during that time?

What if a meteor crashes into the Supreme Court building and takes out all of them at once?

[ResistantAmerican17]

3. Good question. How do you steer a meteor? Asking for a friend.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. I'd point it at a different DC building.

[TheFarseer]

11. I thought if one died

And there were only 8 left, then they could either make their second nomination sooner or if that doesn’t apply, the most recently retired justice could return to the court until it’s time to pick another justice.

[unblock]

2. Does the senate get no say?

As long as the senate gets a say, how do you prevent them from refusing to agree to anything? They don't need to be as blatant as mcturtle. They can hold hearings and always find some excuse to say no and run out the clock.

If the president can appoint with zero oversight from congress, that leads to other, probably worse, problems.

[Demsrule86]

9. Right now, there is no purpose in giving the Senate a say...the pugs will vote for

whoever, their president wants and will refuse to vote for out candidates. No, one gets judges without having the senate...McConnell also blocked all lower court justices for two years ...after winning the Senate.

[unblock]

15. I agree mcturtle broke something that had been working for over two centuries.

But I don't think making it a purely appointed position is a good solution. Donnie would have appointed his kids.

[Demsrule86]

18. That is what it is now...an appointed post. The issue is when you don't have the presidency,

you can't get judges...not what the framers intended. But what can we do about it? We can't give them judges if they are going to screw us...terrible thing. McConnell will go down as the worst majority leader in history. Add four justices and let's get policy through end the filibuster.

[TheFarseer]

12. This would not effect the Senate approval process

They would still have to get Senate approval.

[unblock]

13. Then a partisan opposition senate can still say no the entire term

[TheFarseer]

16. They could do that now if they wanted

Not sure how you stop it either. If we get a lot of Presidents from one party and the other party has the Senate in the future, we’ll be lucky to have ANYONE on the court!

[Demsrule86]

19. Then we have no one on the court...they won't give us judges, they get nothing.

They broke it. We need to add four justices and pass our policy. Fuck the Republicans. And if you think they would not do this if they could, you would be wrong.

[unblock]

21. Yes. Mcturtle broke something that worked reasonably well for ages.

The senate and the president negotiated and somehow we ended up with confirmations even with opposing parties.

Mcturtle broke that tradition and it's not clear what will happen next time there's a vacancy with opposing powers in those positions. Well it's pretty obvious what a Republican senate would do, less clear what a democratic senate would do.

Not sure how to solve it. Sometimes, institutions and rules are only as good as the people in the relevant roles.

[Sherman A1]

5. sounds somewhat familiar

https://www.democraticunderground.com/130429

[Demsrule86]

6. No, we put four justices on the court immediately so as to save Roe, health care and

the end of slavery...which our newest justice apparently thinks wasn't correctly decided.

[Brainfodder]

7. I'm for a large expansion so 1 death isn't this loony partisan BS Level 12 ever again?

[Laelth]

10. +1 n/t

-Laelth

[Demsrule86]

20. I agree...add four...the country is much bigger now.

[Laelth]

8. No, thank you.

They get more liberal as they get older—Clarence Thomas being a notable exception. I don’t want to kick the eldest off the bench.

-Laelth

[Wounded Bear]

14. Another proposal for Constitutional amendment...

"Lifetime appointment" is pretty explicit.

[TheFarseer]

17. Yes, would require an Amendment

But I’m just throwing out ideas to see what people think.