Despite pressure on Sotomayor, Supreme Court unlikely to change before Trump takes office. Here's why.

[BumRushDaShow]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: CBS News

November 8, 2024 / 3:59 PM EST


Washington — President-elect Donald Trump's victory Tuesday has stirred up whispers about whether Justice Sonia Sotomayor should step down from the Supreme Court to allow President Biden to nominate a successor before Republicans take control of Washington.

But any changes in the composition of the nation's highest court are unlikely in the coming months, even as lawmakers return for a lame-duck session to finish their business before Trump is sworn in for a second term and the GOP assumes the Senate majority. Sotomayor hasn't responded publicly to the chatter about a retirement, and she did not return a request for comment about her future. She remains an active questioner during oral arguments and has become known for biting dissents in hotly contested cases.

At 70, she is not the oldest member of the Supreme Court — Justice Clarence Thomas is 76 and Justice Samuel Alito is 74 — and she is newly into her tenure as the senior-most member of its liberal wing, a position she assumed following the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer in 2022.

Sotomayor, the first Hispanic justice, is also a decade younger than Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was when she faced pressure to step down from the Supreme Court in 2013 and 2014.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sotomayor-supreme-court-trump/

[SoCalDavidS]

1. I Predict He Will End Up Appointing 7 Of The 9 Justices

Thomas & Alito make 5.

Then, Roberts retires, and Sotomayor has to for health reasons.

[FBaggins]

2. Way too risky

There is (barely) enough time to get someone through the process... but it's far from guaranteed.

And if we fail? The risk that we're trying to avoid (Trump getting to replace another liberal with a conservative) comes true right away.

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. The reason why is even simpler

Manchin and Sinema would block any Biden appointee.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Exactly

And even with them, if someone like Turtle can hold up Obama's nominee for almost a year after Scalia bought the farm, any nomination now is a 100% no-go because it will only need one Senator to "hold".

[FBaggins]

6. Well... you can't "hold" a SCOTUS nominee

Nor can you filibuster one

But you can vote "no"... and there might be 51 no votes.

(Note - Scalia's replacement wasn't held up with a filibuster or other shenanigans. Republicans held the majority in the Senate at the time)

[BumRushDaShow]

8. There is such a thing as

ahem... confirmation hearings. And given the party split of members on the Judiciary Committee, there is no guarantee that a nominee would even make it out to the floor.

[FBaggins]

10. That was actually my original point

A bunch of DUers seem to want to use our senate majority while we still have it... and that's all well and good. But we don't really have a senate majority for just anything we want to do. Manchin/Sinema are easy projections for a "no" on this question... but I'm not sure that Tester and Brown would agree to do so right after the voters said they want someone else to make those decisions.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. I also saw this article this morning

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senate-democrats-lame-duck-biden-judges_n_672e58e2e4b0933e82c9ed15

That needs to be priority, and even that has been held up by Manchin's supposed insistence on not voting for any nominee that doesn't have at least one GOP member for support.

And that will be on top of the fact that since the government is still operating on a C.R. until December 20th, that process is going take a chunk of time to work out with respect to what comes next. So a SCOTUS replacement is a non-starter any which way one looks at it.

[FBaggins]

12. Yep - there are 47 federal judge slots open

The senate should absolutely confirm whoever they can rather than cede the slots to Trump.

But I’m not sure how much of even that is possible. Are all 51 current democrats anxious to shove things through at the last minute?

What if Manchin and/or Sinema is offered a job in the new administration?

[Sequoia]

4. She needs to stay.

And she's younger and smarter than the monster in charge. Too late in the game for a change that could turn out badly.

[Mark.b2]

7. It would just leave an open seat for Trump and...

the new Senate to fill with THEIR judge with no filibuster to stop them.

[Martin68]

9. Not enough time or enough votes to get a new justice in. Pipe dream.

[Hekate]

13. Any Democrat who thinks this is a good idea is hallucinating

Mitch McConnell held open a vacancy for a solid year to prevent Obama from appointing another judge.

[Omaha Steve]

14. AFTER a review by forum hosts LOCKING

This is analysis/feature story.

Statement of Purpose
Post the latest news from reputable mainstream news websites and blogs. Important news of national interest only. No analysis or opinion pieces. No duplicates. News stories must have been published within the last 12 hours. Use the published title of the story as the title of the discussion thread.