Anyone paying attention to the Supreme Court of the USA?

 

It is finally dawning on many how important the Supreme Court is for citizens. Apparently, for decades Republicans have been busy working on ensuring that the Supreme Court is packed with conservative justices. Who knew that!  They have used outside conservative groups, like the Federalist Society, to nominate justices at every opportunity. The liberal counterpart for the Federalist Society is the American Constitution Society. At least until recently this group had not been very active or very successful in nominating justices. The explanation of Democrats for this lack luster effect is that the Democrats are a very heterogenous group compared to the Republicans.

Liberal democrats were either busy dealing with other priorities or entirely unaware of what was happening with the Court. Irrespective of the reason, currently the Court is heavily packed with conservatives. The situation was made worse in the last six years with the appointment of three conservative justices. It did not have to be this way if the Supreme Court was not politicized. In 2015 when Justice Scalia passed, the Republican Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell was against confirming a justice before the federal election in 2016. This resulted in the confirmation of Gorsuch, the first of the three most recent conservative justices.  This was followed by Kavanaugh replacing Kennedy.  Finally,with Ginsburg's passing the republicans succeeded in confirming Barrett. With this confirmation the Republicans succeeded in establishing a conservative court for years to come. 

Liberal activists have finally risen to play a role in the next court appointment. How did they do it? For months they had a mobile display urging Justice Breyer to step down. Whether it was because of the liberal activism or because Justice Breyer thinks he will not be effective in the current conservative court he has announced his retirement from the court. It is also possible that he would like to retire giving Biden the opportunity to appoint a Justice. If Ginsberg had stepped down when liberals suggested that she step down, Obama and the democrats would have appointed a Justice and helped maintain the judicial balance in the country. 

There are now some rumblings that could affect Justice Thomas. There is concern that Justice Thomas's wife Ginni Thomas is involved in activities that are a threat to the activities of the Supreme Court. Apparently Ginni Thomas is a staunch conservative and may have an influence on the decisions made by her husband Clarence Thomas. A recent article by Jane Mayer in the NewYorker discusses this in great detail. If this is indeed the case, Justice Thomas may have to retire/step down to maintain the stature of the highest court in the land.