They could've ballooned it up to 50 justices with all the new additions being Federalist Society ghouls. They could've made the number 9 irrelevant. Why didn't they jump at this easy opportunity to consolidate power?
If you're already winning, why push harder? If the Republicans pack the court during the Trump presidency they would have risked was de-legitimizing it in the eyes of the libs, but as it exists now it could pass any reactionary garbage decision you can imagine and the libs will accept it because they still believe in the institution. Blowing up the court only makes sense if you're trying to create a new political paradigm, not preserve the existing one.
Fair enough.
as it exists now it could pass any reactionary garbage decision you can imagine and the libs will accept it because they still believe in the institution
Good point. super depressing though
They literally didn't need to. There is no fundamental difference between having a 5/9 majority of Federalist Society ghouls that will never fail to hold the party line, a 6/9 majority of Federalist Society ghouls that will never fail to hold the party line, and a 47/50 majority of Federalist Society ghouls that will never fail to hold the party line.
Not packing the courts is also tactically and optically a better option, because when you inevitably lose in 2020 or 2024, a possibility they already had planned for in the handbook, you don't immediately have a democratic Congress come in hot off the tails of 75% of American voters being livid at you for overturning Roe, Obergefell, and fucking Plessy v. Ferguson, immediately pack the courts with a thousand 30 year old clones of Merrick Garland that can live another 60 years, and then pass a law permanently keeping the supreme Court at a size of 1050, and guaranteeing dem judicial success for generations.
Tl;dr: They're evil, not idiots. It doesn't matter how big your majority is when all your justices are ghoulish and you've guaranteed that all even moderately high profile conservative judges on any level in the past 50 years have been equally excited to eliminate abortion, gay marriage, and reinstitute Jim Crow laws nationwide.
Because they already have control of the court, so why pull a move that might push the media into questioning its legitimacy?
I think the court is inherently the most conservative branch. It exists to prevent changes that may threaten the people that have power at the current moment. Republicans have good reason to make the court as legitimate as possible, so such blatant shenanigans would not help them when they already have control of the court. Making the presidency and Congress look dumb is fine as long as everyone trusts the court.
Also they kind of did pack the court when they refused to let Obama fill Scalia's seat.
It would have weakened the controlled opposition's stance against packing the court.
What’s the difference between refusing to seat merrick garland and adding two seats
Exactly this - why change the rules of a game you're already winning?
Democrats probably wouldn't do anything to retaliate, but the Republicans still control the court and they can be certain the dems won't do anything.
I want this to happen and set off an arms race where there are more seats on the court than people in the US.
It would have given the Dems a thing to do a political stunt about.
There's the chunk of the right wingers who are pretty libby about "respecting institutions" that would throw a fit and cause some friction.
There's the chunk of the right wingers that talk about making government smaller, and would throw a fit about it.
Also, a sign of weakness. "Is our way of thinking so shitty and out of touch that the only way we can get things to pass is effectively by 'cheating'?"
Dems and Repubs do a TON of fundraising around the supreme court itself and the cases that will be brought before it. This goes away if one side pulled the trigger and packed the courts.
And as has been said elsewhere, most of the justices are old and conservative, even the ones put there by the folks wearing the "blue jersey". So like, there's not going to be any real resistance to the rightward slide.
Same reason Republicans don't eliminate the filibuster. They want to break democratic norms just a little, enough to consolidate power slowly without radicalizing the Democrats to do the same. Democrats won't, because they're liberals who truly believe the Supreme Court isn't political.
The GOP already had 5 seats out of 9 before 2016. They knew Kennedy would retire and move his seat further right, and then they gambled on an 84 year old with pancreatic cancer dying and it paid off.
They did pack the courts during that timespan.
54 federal appeals court judges were appointed in those four years. Those are lifetime appointments.
Obama appointed 55 federal judges over eight years.
3/9 of the Supreme Court was also appointed during Trump's 4 years.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/13/how-trump-compares-with-other-recent-presidents-in-appointing-federal-judges/
good question, seems like they were allowed to. any party with full power could have. maybe even they are afraid of the road that will lead down, but we know Republicans will go down it anyways.
If Biden is able to get a justice or two appointed, they'll do it next time they have all branches of government.
The only thing that could crush the state at this point is a legitimacy crisis, and they know it. No amount of military spending or propaganda will help if a majority of people just flat out refuse to play.
They need complacency, and you don't get that by acting openly corrupt. You have to fly just under the radar. Also; love the username.
