Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn’t want to resign and allow President Obama the opportunity to replace her with a like-minded liberal judge.
Why? Because she believes Republican senators would block her replacement’s confirmation.
“If I resign any time this year, he could not successfully appoint anyone I would like to see in the court,” Ginsburg said in an interview with Elle. “[Senate Republicans] took off the filibuster for lower federal court appointments, but it remains for this court. So anybody who thinks that if I step down, Obama could appoint someone like me, they’re misguided.”
But as New York Magazine notes, if that were to happen, Senate Democrats would most likely change Senate rules to disrupt the filibuster as they did with lower-court appointees.
The fear is that Republicans will gain control of the Senate in November, which may or may not happen. If that happens, it will be tough – not impossible, but tough – to get a new nominee confirmed. And if Democrats keep the White House in 2016 – a very likely prospect if a certain formerly “dead broke” politician pulls herself up from the bootstraps to mount a campaign – it would be very easy to replace Ginsburg.
But none of these outcomes are a sure thing. Right now Democrats have control of the White House and Senate, so it would seem wise to put a new liberal on the bench that has decades of service ahead. That guarantees three liberals – Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ginsburg’s replacement – on the court for many years to come (Justice Stephen Breyer is 76 years old and could retire).
Meanwhile, on the conservative side of the court, Justice Antonin Scalia is 78 and Justice Clarence Thomas is 66. Wildcard Justice Anthony Kennedy is also 78.
The only young-ish conservative justices are Chief Justice John Roberts (59) and Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. (64). That’s a guaranteed two conservative justices.
If Democrats keep the Senate and win the White House in 2016, control of the Supreme Court could be put squarely in liberal hands for decades, radically altering the country without any conservative counterbalance.
That is something Republicans need to be mindful of in upcoming elections.
