I disagree strongly with RBG's politics in most areas, and I think that her tenure as Supreme Court Justice was very harmful, though I admire her tenacity. If I spend my last decades clinging to life and continuing to fight, with hundreds of thousands of my ideological adverseries hoping for my death and spitting on my grave after I die, then my life will have been an unbelievable success.
I don't think there is evidence that anyone on the right was hoping RGB would die, and I am not aware of anyone on the right "spitting on her grave".
This probably actually hurts Trump, though it throws even more chaos into what was already likely to be an incredibly chaotic election. If Trump appoints someone before the election, then evangelical/conservative/libertarian Republicans will have less reason to hold their noses and vote for him, since yet another vacancy is no longer particularly likely. If Trump chooses not to appoint someone while he has the chance, then it pisses off these same voters, since Trump definitely can appoint someone. Whoever he appoints will be tarred-and-feathered in the same way that Kavanaugh was, and the Democrats will use the appointment as way of enraging their base and getting them to turn out. IMO Biden's chance of winning goes up several percentage points due to RBG's death.Trump will likely appoint Amy Cohen Barrett, either as a recess appointment, or who gets confirmed by the Senate. IMO handing the left a defeat right before an election will demoralize them.
Hearings on Barrett's appointment will bring back memories of Kavanaugh, and how the left tried to ruin a person's life for no reason other than to prevent a conservative from being on the Supreme Court. Harris also sits on the judiciary committee, and SC hearings will take her off the campaign trail.
Unless the presidential election is a landslide, whoever loses is going to try to steal the election. Trump will claim that mail-in ballots are fraudulent, illegals voted, the deep state conspired against him, etc. Biden will claim that Trump was helped by Russia, and he will also dispute the premise of the electoral college. There are multiple ways that this chaos could unfold, but it's likely that the Supreme Court will get involved at some point, and having several loyal justices will give Trump the edge at this stage of the battle.
RBG was a loyal Democrat in the same way that Kavanaugh and Thomas are loyal Republicans, voting in their respective party's favor whenever they can get away with it, regardless of any actual legal considerations. Gorsuch is actually committed to textualism. John Roberts is not a loyal Republican, and in controversial cases he will always cast his vote in whichever way defers to the executive or legislative branches the most. I'm not familiar enough with the philosophies of the others, though they usually vote along party lines in contentious cases.
The election will almost certainly be contested and there will likely be multiple cases before the SC. I would anticipate all kinds of nonsense from Democrats in the aftermath of the election.
Roberts has turned into somewhat of a reliable liberal. I don't think he likes Trumps criticism of the courts, even if they are justified. (I would lay blame on Trump's criticism on the judges rather than on Trump).
This could get really crazy. We could see blood in the streets, threats of secession, etc.
Democrats are actually playing
war games in which CA, OR and WA threaten to secede if Trump wins.
I would not be surprised to see riots after the election, although Trump has promised to stop election day violence.
There is some backlash to the violence we are seeing in cities controlled by Democrats, and any violence in reaction to a SC nomination/confirmation will reflect poorly on Democrats, probably including down ballot races.
I would anticipate Trump quickly nominating a solid conservative before the election and the Senate to confirm her.
The American people are perfectly capable of having their say on this issue, so let's give them a voice. Let's let the American people decide. The Senate will appropriately revisit the matter when it considers the qualifications of the nominee the next president nominates, whoever that might be.
Everyone knew that that was bullshit which he'd flip on whenever it became politically convenient to do so. For this vacancy, he'll come up with some excuse to
"fill it", though I don't know why he even bothers with excuses, since both sides have basically abandoned any pretense of civility, consistency, or fairness at this point. If McConnel came out and said, "We're going to fill it this time because it's politically convenient. That's it.", hardly anyone would think any less of him because if it.
The issue in 2016 is that the Senate was controlled by a different party than the President. In 2020, that is not the case.
This doesn’t matter if the Harris-Biden ticket wins, and Democrats take over the Senate. If this happens, it is all but certain that the SC will be packed regardless of who gets confirmed this year.
Not sure if Biden would do it, but that is pretty likely at some point.
(who is the de-facto Presidential nominee) is open to packing the court. There are also calls from the left to pack the court if Democrats win the Senate, House and White House.
People are saying she should've resigned under Obama, hindsight is always 20/20. At first, I thought they should've waited until after the election but the talking heads on Fox say it's cool. Needless to say, I'm conflicted lol
Once Republicans won the Senate, Obama was not going to be able to get anyone confirmed to the SC. He only had a short window to replace RGB. After the 2010 midterm elections, Democrats lost 9 seats, only held a small majority in the Senate, and there was still the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, so a partisan Democrat would likely be difficult to confirm. Even without the filibuster, a partisan would have been difficult to get confirmed.
My prediction is after Trump announces the choice on Saturday, next week there is Senate debate starting Monday, and by Friday, it will be over.
That's not how it works. Even if Trump would be dumb enough to push for that I'm sure McTurtle is not. There will be committee hearings sometime in October. Many GOP senators will be out campaigning. So the actual confirmation vote is likely either immediately before the election or after, depending on how GOP thinks it would affect voters (I'm sure there will be polls conducted to that effect).
I would anticipate a quick process and would anticipate a 30 day process, give or take. I would say it will probably be done by the last debate. It wont be a week long process, there is too much risk that Democrat operatives will pull a Kavanaugh after the nominee is confirmed, which will complicate things if a vote is too quick.
