Stacking The Court !

Donald Trump has put forward Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to replace the recently deceased  Ruth Bader Ginsberg on the American Supreme court.   Justices serve a life term and the 48 year old would be the youngest ever to hold that position and would most likely be a pivoting factor for many years to come.

There is no doubt that she has the qualifications for the job.   She has been a Federal Court judge for the past three years and both sides of politics will be closely examining her decisions for evidence of either  liberal or a conservative bias, because that is what is at stake in this appointment.

Trump is accused of trying to stack the Supreme court with deeply conservative justices.  In 1973 the court made a ruling in " Roe versus Wade " that granted women in America the right to abortion ". Many conservatives want to reverse that decision and it seems likely to be revisited because some conservative states are blocking access to abortion clinics.  Consequently, the makeup of the Supreme court is vital to women who value that abortion right.

Judge Barrett comes from a family of seven children, and has seven of her own, including two adopted from Haiti.  Two decades ago she clerked for arch conservative Justice Antonin Scalia.  Scalia died in 2016 and he was balanced by Ginsberg's liberal outlook.  Now the balance of the Supreme court is again in question, depending on who fills this vacancy.

The Democrat side of politics is demanding this decision be held over until after the November 3 presidential election.  There is certainly protocol because when Scalia died the Senate majority leader refused to put Barak Abama's nominee to the vote until after the election.  At that time the Republicans had the majority in the Senate.

That majority is till in place, and with Republican Trump in the White House it seems the way is clear for Trump to force his nominee to be accepted, except if the presidential election runs close it could be that same Supreme court that decides the result.   When Gore and Bush finished neck and neck it was the Supreme court that controversially found in favour of Bush.

This has provoked the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to suggest a compromise  They are calling for Judge Barrett to publicly make  clear that should this presidential election come before the Supreme court she will not participate in any decision.

The US Constitution is  clear on how justices are appointed to the Supreme court.  A nominee is selected by the president and confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate.  It was always assumed that this vote would be one of impartial acceptance by a majority from whatever political parties were present in the Senate.   The precedent of a political party voting as a block is a new and very unwelcome development.

That is not helped by President Trump publicly  stating that if he loses the vote at the coming election he will not peacefully step down from office.  That seems to be a call to arms to his redneck followers.

It seems that Trump has dictatorial aspirations  !