Many Americans have been much happier with the Supreme Court over the last several years when compared to previous decades.
Why?
Because the current make up of the Supreme Court is much more constitutionally slanted than in previous decades.
I’m not saying that I agree with every decision that the current court makes. I am saying, though, that we have had major rulings from this court reasserting our Second Amendment rights, rulings that almost certainly would not have been in our favor if Trump hadn’t nominated several of the current justices sitting on the court now.
That being said, though, two of the most constitutionally minded justices on the court, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, are getting up in age, and some people have wondered if they should consider doing what more left-leaning justices have done in the past. I’ll let John Kruzel with Reuters explain:
Alito and Thomas have faced few public calls from conservatives to step down. By contrast, liberal Justice Stephen Breyer faced withering pressure from the left to retire before the 2022 midterm elections – which he ultimately did – clearing the way for Democratic President Joe Biden to name Jackson, a former clerk of his, to replace him.
Now, while I think that those on the political left have, to put it nicely, “misguided” ideas and goals, they do tend to be pretty politically astute when it comes to pushing their agenda by political means. That, of course, includes working to keep like-minded people on the court and in Congress.
So, in that light, the way that they handled Breyer’s aging was politically smart.
Personally, I don’t particularly want to lose Alito or Thomas on the court as the other “conservative” judges aren’t as constitutionally minded as I would like (they are much better, in my opinion, than the liberal justices on the court, though).
So, should Alito and Thomas retire while Trump is still in office and, therefore, able to nominate conservative replacements to the court?
That’s a tough question and tricky to answer. Personally, I’m hoping that neither Alito or Thomas need or want to retire anytime soon because they’re the best justices on the court today, in my opinion.
