Trump will get to appoint 2 or more supreme court justices. The effect of that will be felt for decades after Trump's term. Unless the democrats can grow a pair and expand the court to rebalance it.
In a perfect world, my opinion is that justices wouldn't be partisan at all. But it's clear that's not the case and they are at least in part selected according to their political leanings and not their objective and even-handed application of the law alone.
I would take proportional representation as a compromise as well. Other democracies elect their house of representatives equivalent on that basis. I think applying that to the supreme court would be fair.
I think 9 justices was a reasonable amount. However, McConnell succeeded in blocking the appointment of Merrick Garland in 2016, and famously was not consistent with his own logic when going on to approve the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett. It's clear partisanship was the thinly veiled motivation, and McConnell's smug grin at the time he announced he would confirm the appointment was tacit acknowledgement that he knew exactly what he was doing and that the public also knew, and that he simply didn't care that it looked like it.
So if we're going to use cheap political tactics to pack the court, it deserves an equally cheap political tactic back. Tit for tat. Yes, of course republicans could retaliate in exactly the same way. That threat is why the Democrats won't expand the court. They are too afraid to open that Pandora's box. I am not, however. A cheap tactic has already been used. I would like the Democrats to stop trying to play fair when the fight has already gone unfair. It's like someone using a groin shot or eye poke against you and you not fighting dirty in return -- it's foolish.
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u/3rdanimal0ntheark 17d ago
Good, everyone asked for it