Kennedy

You all probably have heard that Justice Kennedy is retiring and how it will affect the trans community; but what can be done to stop or counter Trump’s appointment?

Connecticut senators say they are going to try and stop the nomination hearings until after the fall elections; I believe that have a snowball’s chance in hell in stopping the hearing and vote.

GOP plans to steamroll Dems on Supreme Court pick
Senate Republicans will move quickly to replace Anthony Kennedy before the midterm elections.
Politico
By Burgess Everett and Elana Schor
June 27, 2018

Senate Republicans plan to confirm a new Supreme Court justice to replace retiring Anthony Kennedy before the midterm elections, according to interviews with nearly a dozen Republican senators.

The Senate GOP is expected to execute a lightning strike confirmation despite their razor thin majority of 51 senators, which is effectively down to 50 as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) recovers from brain cancer. But because of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s rules change last year to push through Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, the GOP can unilaterally confirm a new justice without any Democratic support.

McConnell told reporters that the nominee will be confirmed before this fall; Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has said that historically it takes about two months on average from the time a president nominates a new justice to the time a Judiciary Committee hearing is held. What that means practically is the Senate is likely to have installed a firm conservative majority on the high court by the time voters go to the polls in November.

The slimy Republicans refused to even hold a hearing for President Obama’s and then they changed the rules of the Senate so the Democrats cannot filibuster Trump’s nominee.

In McClatchy DC Bureau he reports…

"The Senate stands ready to fulfill its constitutional role by offering advice and consent on President Trump’s nominee to fill this vacancy," McConnell said. And, in a warning to Democrats, he said that it is "imperative that the president’s nominee be considered fairly and not be subjected to personal attacks."

McConnell, who earned the enmity of Democrats for refusing in 2016 to hold a hearing for President Barack Obama's pick for the Supreme Court after Justice Antonin Scalia died that February, now wants to move rapidly to get a new justice seated.

It is a done deal that we are going to have another Supreme Court justice who believes in putting the Bible before the Constitution, who puts billionaires before the people.

So what can be done to counter these “Religious Freedom” and “Ooriginalist” judges?

Nothing?

Let’s look at the history of the Supreme Court for an answer.

Well first off, impeaching a Supreme Court justice is near impossible and I don’t really want to set precedence for impeaching a judge because of rulings you don’t like.

So what else can we do?

Well the Constitution says there will be a Supreme Court but not the size of the court, the number was set by the,

Judiciary Act of 1789
The Judiciary Act of 1789, officially titled "An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States," was signed into law by President George Washington on September 24, 1789. Article III of the Constitution established a Supreme Court, but left to Congress the authority to create lower federal courts as needed. Principally authored by Senator Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut, the Judiciary Act of 1789 established the structure and jurisdiction of the federal court system and created the position of attorney general. Although amended throughout the years by Congress, the basic outline of the federal court system established by the First Congress remains largely intact today.

It also set the number of Supreme Court judges at 6

So how did we end up with nine judges?

The History Channel has an article on the number of justices…

There haven’t always been nine justices on the court.
The U.S. Constitution established the Supreme Court but left it to Congress to decide how many justices should make up the court. The Judiciary Act of 1789 set the number at six: a chief justice and five associate justices. In 1807, Congress increased the number of justices to seven; in 1837, the number was bumped up to nine; and in 1863, it rose to 10. In 1866, Congress passed the Judicial Circuits Act, which shrank the number of justices back down to seven and prevented President Andrew Johnson from appointing anyone new to the court. Three years later, in 1869, Congress raised the number of justices to nine, where it has stood ever since. In 1937, in an effort to create a court more friendly to his New Deal programs, President Franklin Roosevelt attempted to convince Congress to pass legislation that would allow a new justice to be added to the court—for a total of up to 15 members—for every justice over 70 who opted not to retire. Congress didn’t go for FDR’s plan.

So there is a way out if the Democrats get control of Congress and the Presidency; increase the number of justices! I would like to see 11 justices. There is precedence for increasing the number of justices and it would not set a precedent of impeaching a justice.