The Supreme Court is going to drastically change in the next eight years.

[NCTraveler]

The importance of this is monumental. It cannot be ignored.

Trump:

Mr. Trump’s selections consisted of six federal appeals court judges appointed by President George W. Bush and five state supreme court justices appointed by Republican governors. All are white, and eight of the 11 are men.

Several of the judges on Mr. Trump’s list have questioned abortion rights. They included Raymond W. Gruender, a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit who led a majority that permitted South Dakota to enforce a law requiring doctors to tell women that abortions “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being.”

They also included William H. Pryor Jr. of the 11th Circuit, whose appointment Senate Democrats had tried to block in part because, in his previous role as Alabama attorney general, he denounced Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, as having manufactured “a constitutional right to murder an unborn child.”

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/us/politics/donald-trump-supreme-court-nominees.html?referer=

To those claiming you won't show up, you are my opposition. To those working against Democrats, you are my opposition. I know some of our new friends like to act as if some of these items are wedge issues. You could be no more wrong. We could have our rights rolled back in a major way. That is not hyperbole.

Equality for women is a human right. Equality for minorities is a human right. Equality for LGBQT is a human right.

[JRLeft]

1. It won't if corporate dems keep nominating the Merrick Garland's

of the world.

[upaloopa]

3. If we win the White House and Senate and hold on to them there will be no need to nominate

Merrick Garlands.

We need to vote come November and in off year elections. It is in our hands if were are willing to take the responsibility

[JRLeft]

6. If the democratic party wins the election Garland will be confirmed in December.

[dsc]

23. even if he is

and frankly I think Obama would withdraw him if we won the Senate and the White House, that is one seat. We would likely get at least 2 and more probably up to 4 appointees in those 8 years (all but Obama's 3 counting Garland plus Bush's 2 being replaced in the 8 years).

[frylock]

26. If my aunt had nads she'd be my uncle.

[ThePhilosopher04]

29. There was no need to nominate him in the first place.

Settling is what's wrong with the Democratic party. They have a glass jaw when it comes to fighting and just rollover and cave at every turn. Kinda like the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globetrotters. Makes one wonder ...

[upaloopa]

2. Millennials will be the ones most affected time wise by a Trump Supreme court.

I am 70 and will be gone while these right wing judges will still be on the bench. Millennials will live the rest of their lives under the rule of law authored by conservatives.

Their future is in their hands come November.

[RKP5637]

5. It will be horrible for them, spending most of their lives under a right-wing SCOTUS.

I hope people are really paying attention. I want to see a democrat in the WH 2016. And, under a Trump presidency, it will open the door to all types of right-wing shenanigans.

[JRLeft]

7. Merrick Garland makes the court 5-4 in the GOP's favor.

[upaloopa]

9. There will be several vacancies in the coming years to fill.

[JRLeft]

11. We hope so. It's also possible that Thomas and Kennedy live 8 more years.

If we have an economic collapse, it's a chance we get a GOP president after 4.

[RKP5637]

10. The "new" democratic party has left me, so I changed to unaffiliated. n/t

[dsc]

24. that is complete bullshit

Garland wouldn't be my top pick but on the issues the OP raised Garland would be a reliable liberal vote by all indications.

[JRLeft]

13. Democrats want to make cuts to social security and Medicare.

Mrs. Payday loans wants to stick it to them even more.

[RKP5637]

16. Yep, often D=R. So sad and pathetic. n/t

[JRLeft]

17. If you ask Hillary supporters those democrats are progressives.

[RKP5637]

19. It's a split party under one tent with seams breaking. n/t

[JRLeft]

20. The neoliberal control over the party is in its last throws or the democratic party will split.

Not this election cycle but likely the next one.

[RKP5637]

21. Yep, many have had it with fake democrats. n/t

[JRLeft]

22. I expect Hillary you be the next president and I expect a ground war.

[NewJeffCT]

8. What I was wondering the other day was

Scalia passed away a few months ago... Clarence Thomas almost always voted in unison with Scalia - they were buddy-buddy. Sometimes, if one partner in an elderly married couple passes away, the other spouse will sometimes die soon afterwards. I wonder if something like that happened with Thomas, Democrats would have a 4-3 edge on the Court, would Republicans suddenly change their minds about Garland?

Also, when the court is deadlocked at 4-4, the lower court decision stands, but it does not set precedent. Does a 4-3 SCotUS decision set precedent? Does it take a full court to set precedent?

[Stallion]

25. Yes 4-3 Sets Precedent

nm

[leftynyc]

4. THIS is my issue

Nothing else even comes close. And I agree, those not voting because they didn't get the candidate of their choice are my opposition.

[Hortensis]

12. Koch's list > Heritage Foundation list > Trump's list.

Their extremist conservative/libertarian intent is to reduce the federal government to military and police functions and to allow a dog-eat-dog socioeconomic hierarchy to take over by packing the court with people from that list who will reinterpret the Constitution out of all recognition. Almost all state government functions would eventually also be eliminated, also, such as public education and publicly funded hospitals.

Conservatives who support this never seem to notice how exactly this system would replicate those of impoverished, underdeveloped nations ruled by a small group of families supporting the current dictator. They think it'd be different here because we're supposedly a white and Protestant Christian nation, and therefore a totally superior breed of humankind.

There is also the very real possibility that in the process the religious and social right would join with business to accelerate the move to outright fascism. The Kochs claim to be libertarian, which has so profitably justified unbridled greed and excused all criminal activity in their minds, but it's very likely they are at base fascistic authoritarian conservatives like their John Bircher, Nazi-admiring father.

[samsingh]

14. Only if a Democratic candidate wins the White House.

[Hortensis]

15. ?

[MattP]

18. I can't believe people think Garland and one of these picks would be the same

That's like saying Kagan and Thomas are the same

[mmonk]

27. The blackmail argument is hard to make when those that allow hard right candidates

to be seated on the courts when the opposition doesn't allow Democratic candidates to take a seat on the courts. You become nothing less than the boy that cried wolf.

[NCTraveler]

31. It is a fact that SC appointments are nominated by the President.

There is simply no blackmail here. This is reality and I have no interest in blackmailing you nor do I have the dirt that would be necessary to blackmail you. I really have no clue who you are outside of a poster on a message board promoting the thought that they are being blackmailed.

[mmonk]

34. It's amazing you even have the guts to reply to anything I say.

And you know why. I've never even been cross with you.

[ThePhilosopher04]

28. Better get your ass in gear and vote for Bernie Sanders if the Supreme Court is your issue.

He's the only chance we have to beat Trump.

[NCTraveler]

30. I voted for Clinton in Florida.

It wasn't even Close.

Maybe voters should have shown up for him.

[nc4bo]

32. Yes! Idea? Let's nominate more moderate and lite republicans! YEAH

[bettyellen]

33. Until we have full rights in all fifty states, no liberal can call our issues a wedge.

Anyone who does is a self centered libertarian nut job in my book.