Re: The War for the Supreme Court (Ginsburg is dead)
Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2020 12:13 pm
Sustained mass protests have a pretty good track record in getting would-be autocrats to depart office, even in legal frameworks that are decidedly less democratic than ours. In a situation where the public at large views Biden as having won, but Trump is poised to be the electoral college winner in large part *because* of a SCOTUS ruling, particularly if it's 5-4, that would create mass protests that would create *intense* pressure on Trump and the GOP.Ralph-Wiggum wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2020 11:04 amThere have been many things that should have been a take to the streets moment in this presidency that weren't, so why not try another? In a hypothetical situation where the SC does rule in Trump's favor and swings the election his way, what do you think taking to the streets will do? I don't see any way that scenario plays out with Trump standing down and we've already seen that Trump/GOP have no problem calling in troops and teargassing citizens protesting. With how much everything has already been corrupted, I don't see any way such a decision gets reversed.malchior wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2020 9:35 amThe reason I don't think this happens is it'd likely be the end of the United States as we know it. This is well beyond a take the streets moment.Ralph-Wiggum wrote: Tue Oct 27, 2020 9:03 amA bit late in the response here, but the reason for the rush was because Trump and GOP fully expect to bring election/vote count cases to the SC. Having ACB confirmed gives them at least four judges (ACB, Kavanaugh, Alito, Thomas) who will rule in whatever way helps Trump maintain power. They only need to convince one other (likely Gorsuch) to join them to be able to throw out ballots and potentially swing the election.Smoove_B wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 3:27 pm We have no way to know for sure, but I strongly believe the current rush to have Amy Covid Barrett seated ASAP is because they know they're (GOP) in big trouble and are at significant risk of losing the Presidency and possibly critical seats in Congress. Guessing that 2021 looks bad, McConnell is putting everything into seating *another* justice (and as many lower court judges as possible) as a final firewall against what he imagines will be severe (D) reprisal in 2021 and beyond. If they can't control the budget and policies the can certainly potentially influence the decisions made when challenges are made.
That doesn't mean that the forces of good automatically win, it just means that it would be a winnable fight. And be assured that Biden has a lot of experienced smart lawyers figuring out how to channel that into a Biden presidency.